Woman fleeced in bank fraud

Masvingo (Masvingo Star-New Ziana) – A Masvingo woman is reported to have lost over $30 000 recently to fraudsters that are suspected to have hacked into her bank account, police have confirmed.

The 65-year-old woman from the leafy suburb of Rhodene is said to have received a call from a suspected fraudster on November 26 claiming to work at her bank, which was in the process of upgrading its system.

The fraudster then sent a onetime password to her phone, and asked her to confirm it to him.

She gave the fraudster the onetime password which he is suspected to have used to change her banking details, enabling him to have access to the account.

The unknown caller also told the complainant to send her details and the pin code of the bank card she was using, and she complied.

After a few minutes she received a massage saying the amount of $36 693 had been debited from her account.

Masvingo police spokesperson, Chief Insp Charity Mazula confirmed the incident, and urged members of the public not to respond to such messages and instead approach their banks to confirm the requests.

The latest fraud report comes at a time when other Masvingo residents recently also lost nearly $100 000 to fraudsters using the same method.

These included Lameck Dhemba of Chigwedere Village, Gutu, who lost $25 000 to a fraudster who posed a bank official and tricked him into giving up his bank account details including the Personal Identity Number (PIN) on November 1.

Also defrauded in similar fashion was Restina Virukayi, (23), of Hillside, Masvingo who lost $15 000.

The police indicated that it had received a lot of cases from August 25 to date with the fraudsters targeting people that bank with Steward Bank, CABS and ZB bank.

CABS had the highest number of people that had been defrauded so far. There have been no recoveries.

Masvingo Star-New Ziana