Sandra Maricho
HARARE: Women Coalition of Zimbabwe Harare Chapter Chairperson, Charity Mandishona has warned women against joining online fraudulent businesses to avoid losing money and assets to cyber thieves.
This comes at a time when there is an unbearable rise of online scammers where people are ending up losing huge sums of money.
Commenting on the issue Mandishona expressed concern about how women are continuously duped through this method of scams.
“Let’s be weary of these cyber thieves,” she warned.
“It’s very unfortunate that the victims are poor women who require money to do small businesses and they lose it all. We urge people not to fall prey to these thieves as it will only worsen their situations,” she added.
A case study was given that recently messages were circulating through WhatsApp groups luring women to join what is called LUMI currency.
Information that reached this publication has it that people interested were asked to take pictures of identity cards on both sides, provide an email address, phone number, identity number and send a picture whilst holding the identity card close to the face.
Those who agreed were promised to get free money every month just for becoming a member.
Testifying, a victim also says they were asked to pay RTGS$50
and nothing more for which nothing came back in return for them as promised.
Asked on how they are dealing with rising cyber crime, Zimbabwe Republic Police National Spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi however said he was not aware of the LUMI currency messages which circulated on social media platforms but warns people against responding to messages they are not aware of.
“People should not respond to messages they are not aware of. They have to verify these messages with service providers and financial institutions also they should not engage in these schemes,” Ass Comm Nyathi said.
