Just two weeks into 2026, four scams have been reported to the police. According to the police, victims often fall for these scams due to the attractive offers of the scammers or a lack of vigilance on their part. Since 2024, nearly Nu 40 M have been involved in scams, and so far, almost half of the amount has been recovered.
In 2024, nearly 150 scam cases were recorded, which increased to over nearly 170 last year.
Police were able to recover over Nu 12 M from scammers.
Scams related to lottery prizes accounted for the highest number of cases last year, with over 50 instances reported, followed closely by currency exchange.
Other scams include crypto-currency schemes, house rent advertisements, investment opportunities, online shopping scams, and sharing of one-time passwords.
From these, house rent advertisements accounted for the fewest reported scams last year.
Colonel Passang Dorji, Deputy Chief of Police of Crime Division said, “It is mostly in group forums like Telegram, WhatsApp and WeChat. They conduct in all these sites and also in Facebook. They do scams through all these forums, in disguise. The scammer will never approach as themselves but rather as another person.”
He added that a new type of scam is emerging in Bhutan called spoofing.
Under the scam, scammers who are reportedly foreigners, call a Bhutanese with the mobile number appearing as a Bhutanese number.
The scammers then ask for OTP and personal information and use that to extort money from their account. This year police recorded one such case.
The other three scams reported this year include Australian dollar exchange and lottery prize.
Individuals are advised to be vigilant, verify the sources, and contact the police and relevant authorities as an when approached by scammers.
Singye Dema, Tashi Dekar & Rinchen Tsheyang Pelmo (Intern)
