The Zambia Police Service has recorded an increase in Cyber related financial crimes where fraudsters have taken advantage of increased online financial transaction services particularly during this period of COVID-19 and are swindling unsuspecting members of the public.
Zambia Police spokesperson Esther Katongo said this is despite the reported downward trend in general criminal activities recorded so far during the advent of COVID-19 as shown in the daily incident reports received across the country.
Mrs Katongo said in the past three weeks, the Zambia Police service has recorded 56 reports in which people have been swindled out of various amounts of money , the highest being K21, 000.
She said in some of the reports received, some fraudsters are calling unsuspecting members of the public pretending to be officials from some Banks asking for Bank details such as Tax Payers Identification Numbers (TPINs) and National Registration Card numbers.
Mrs Katongo said others are pretending to be officials from Banks and are calling people deceiving them that their respective Banks are running promotions where they are requested to deposit certain amounts of money in mobile money accounts provided to them claiming that it will attract interest at various percentages when in fact not.
She said other fraudsters are running fake promotions under renowned business trade names while others are calling people and are pretending to be officials from mobile service providers purporting to be conducting network tests and end up getting information which they are using to get account details.
“From the received cases, Lusaka Province recorded 21 cases, Copperbelt, 18, Eastern, four, Central Province six southern, Western and Northern Provinces recorded two cases each while North Western recorded one”, she said in a statement.
Mrs Katongo has since advised members of the public to always verify any information, requests or promotions with financial or business institutions before committing themselves to any online transaction or before giving out personal details.
She has further called on financial institutions to step up sensitization to their clients on online services and promotions as well as their general operations so as to protect their clients from these fraudsters.
There are also some criminals that call you and claim to be Police officers they can say they are based in Kabwe or anywhere after confirming your location they then give you a story such as some one is using your name and phone number to steal and they have located the culprit can you send money so they can buy fuel to apprehend this person. A friend was duped by such and almost sent the money before calling the Police station after which it was confirmed no such officer existed and no such case was being investigated.
Be very careful and always verify with the place/ company/ govt institution the caller is claiming to be from first.
At one end this is a sign of the advancement of information communication technology and increased access to internet under pf leadership. Unfortunately it is sad that people are taking advantage of others through fraudulent activities. I spoke to the inspector general last night and requested that he sets up a team particularly to hammer these yahoo boys
If All numbers are registered by ZICTA , it should be very easy to at least track these numbers and follow up. We need a serious cyber crime unit at Zambia police. We need to start using BIG DATA technologies…
Mrs Katongo said others are pretending to be officials from Banks and are calling people deceiving them that their respective Banks are running promotions where they are requested to deposit certain amounts of money in mobile money accounts provided to them claiming that it will attract interest at various percentages when in fact not.
Only if you believe in miracle money so much , then you can surely for such a scam.
Ba Kaizer! How can this be an attestation of PF’s supremacy and wonderment? By that reasoning, we ought to blame the PF for the thefts too, people are forced to do so because of hunger.
Also, how’s trying to be relevant working out for you? Seeing as you are in every meeting and you are calling and instructing everybody.
It beggars belief that the police can take more than 2 hours to solve these offences, since everyone’s number is supposedly registered.
The paper published the secret court order directing telecommunications company Verizon to hand over all its telephone data to the NSA on an “ongoing daily basis”.
That report was followed by revelations in both the Washington Post and Guardian that the NSA tapped directly into the servers of nine internet firms, including Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, to track online communication in a surveillance programme known as Prism.-BBC
Some of these crimes are 1990s type of frauds …all it needs is educating the public…I dont think ZP can tackle real cybercrime if they can not find owner of 48 houses.
Kwantamu you are a Zambian hero!!! You are doing what a responsible government should be doing for the vulnerable. EXAMPLE: Officials in Uganda have donated food to 1.5 million vulnerable people living in the metropolitan area of Kampala during the lockdown.THE government of Namibia has committed N$562 million as an emergency income grant to support households that have lost incomes as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.South African Government has R96 million to assist individuals and families. Malawi was one of the last countries to record cases of coronavirus … Malawi’s president and all government ministers are taking a 10% pay cut for three months to raise money to tackle the coronavirus outbreak.
President Peter Mutharika made the announcement as he set out a stimulus package to…
…..help cushion the economic impact of the disease.. Zambian government ili ndwii. THANK YOU KWANTAMU!!