Two Air Conditioners, A FB Hacked Account, One Disputed Arrest
A Belize City family says police have the wrong woman in custody while the person behind an alleged online scam remains at large. Delivery business owner and mother of two Anita Martinez was detained at her home on Monday night and later transferred to Corozal, where investigators are questioning her over fake payment receipts reportedly used to obtain two air-conditioning units. But her relatives insist Martinez is also a victim. They say hackers took control of her Facebook account four years ago, and claim the name, telephone number and bank account connected to the transaction do not belong to her. Tonight, her family is demanding answers and calling on police to identify the person who allegedly used the compromised account.
On The Phone: Sister of Anita Martinez
“A Facebook that she has no access to for the past four years. And she was like, you know, they use the Facebook to scam people, et cetera, et cetera. So she made a post earlier this month asking the public to help her report the account because the account is messaging people, sending fake receipt, trying to scam people and asking people to send their item, et cetera. We thought nothing of it. When my sister was detained, to be honest, she said that when she got to the police station, she saw the AC units. There was two AC units. Apparently, the profile sent a fake receipt to, I believe, I’m not sure if it’s a company or someone selling an AC, and two AC was sent. Based on my knowledge, based from what I got from my sister, she stated that when she got to the station, the AC was there. So she’s saying now that they want to charge her for obtaining property by deception. But the receipt, the payment was received, o the payment was sent rather from a Heritage Bank account. My sister doesn’t have a Heritage Bank account. The name on the item that was sent, the package, the AC, it has Leah on it. My sister name is not Leah. It only marked Belize City with a phone number. My sister phone number wasn’t on the package. Hence, I believe that when packages are sent through BPMS IDS rather, you receive a tracking number. She didn’t receive any of that.”
The family claims police failed to properly investigate the case before arresting Anita Martinez and are now preparing to pursue legal action for what they believe is a wrongful arrest and detention.
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