The Sunday News
Charity Chikara, Business Reporter
THE ZRP Commercial Crimes Unit has raised concerns over the alarming surge of card cloning believed to be fueled by people who are recklessly revealing their personal card security information to middlemen who swipe in exchange for US dollars.
Speaking during the Supply Chain Association of Zimbabwe’s (Scaz) Supply Chain Fraud and Resilience winter school conference in Bulawayo last week, Police Commercial Crimes Unit Detective Assistant Inspector Tom Muleya said card cloning cases have recently gone off the roof following the increase in people hunting for US dollars who give ‘‘middle men’’ access to their bank cards and being careless with one’s personal financial information.
“We are so concerned as the police when it comes to matters of card cloning where people are failing to protect their financial details or personal information.
People are giving their bank cards to middle men who swipe in exchange for cash in US dollars.
We believe that is the time where so many people’s information is harvested which is perhaps the reason why people are being hit hard by the card cloning crime.
If you are an individual and you know you have given someone to swipe for US dollars before, know that you are a potential victim of card cloning.
One day you may find yourself as a victim having your money being wiped out of your account,” he said.
He said people are also engaging in online transactions with people they do not even know or would have met through social media platform.
Detective Asst Insp Muleya said shoppers who are in the habit of throwing away receipts or let cashiers hold onto their bank cards for too long are also potential victims of this rampant cybercrime.
“Some people are careless with receipts when they go shopping, they discard receipts that they are given after they do a transaction.
Those debit card swipe machines produce receipts that have the first digits of the card and last digits of the account.
That is all card cloners need, you may be surprised to notice money being drawn out of your account 15 minutes after you leave a shop.
“When you go shopping you should always remember that the card does not take a long time with the till operator, people should also shield their pin as they punch it in to avoid shoulder surfing, avoid at all cost using middle men and engaging in unclear online payments or bogus messages that require personal information”, he said.
He said people could protect themselves from these disheartening criminal activities that have seen people lose their hard earned money.
“People should make a habit of downloading bank mobile applications on Google store, ensure that pin numbers are not exposed to anyone, frequently check on feedback messages that inform you of any transactions, regularly monitoring bank statements.”
He said according to a global research by 2025 fraud will cost the world over US$3 trillion per year and Zimbabwe is not an exception.
“As commercial crimes division we come to remind you that you are being hit hard and enquire what you are doing about it.
People in businesses have a huge role to play in mitigating fraud.
We once had a case of a man who had 68 active ZimSwitch cards, so this is the complexity of fraud.
Imagine sitting at home and someone is enjoying your hard earned cash somewhere.
Statistics for Zimbabwean cases are not available now however, we can attest that the level in which these cybercrimes are happening is a huge challenge” he said.
