News / National
Man loses R200,000, car in botched forex deal
11 Jun 2017 at 10:54hrs | Views
A Bulawayo man on Thursday lost 200 000 rand and his car in a botched money exchange deal after he was lured to a house in North End suburb where the "deal" was supposed to take place but two robbers pounced on him and got away with the cash and the car, police confirmed yesterday.
National police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba said at around 4pm, the man was called by an unknown woman who purported to have been sent by a woman based in the United Kingdom to change money from the United States dollars to rand.
The woman invited the man to a house in North End where the transaction was supposed to take place.
"Acting on the information, the complainant went to the said address where two unknown adults attacked and robbed him of ZAR200 000 and drove off with the man's Toyota Ist registration number ADV 8028," said Snr Asst Comm Charamba.
Snr Asst Comm Charamba said in a related case that happened on the same day, a woman lost $16 133,85 when thieves stole her bank card and made several purchases at various shops in Bulawayo within a few hours.
Snr Asst Comm Charamba said the woman had sent her daughter to pay a DSTV subscription using her bank card.
"The complainant then received text messages of various transactions which had been made in shops in Bulawayo on her cellphone. She later received a call from the bank advising that her daughter had just reported that her bank card had been stolen together with her cellphone in which the card pin had been saved. Total defrauded is $16 133,85 and nothing was recovered."
Snr Asst Comm Charamba urged members of the public to be alert and not to disclose their pin numbers to anyone as they can end up losing a lot of cash.
"They should not write down their pin numbers on pieces of paper or save them in cellphones as these may fall in the wrong hands," she said.
Snr Asst Comm Charamba also warned members of the public to desist from engaging in illicit deals which end up exposing them to dangers and loss of valuable assets.
"Individuals and corporates should conduct transactions through financial institutions," she said.
The cases come at a time police have also reported that cases of card cloning in Bulawayo have increased where criminals duplicate people's bank cards and then make withdrawals.
The victims only come to know about the crime after receiving text messages confirming successful transactions or later when they are told that they do not have sufficient funds in their accounts.
Bulawayo is also home to a number of money changers, known as osiphatheleni who are always in possession of large sums of money. Some of the money changers have fallen prey to thieves in the past few days.
National police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba said at around 4pm, the man was called by an unknown woman who purported to have been sent by a woman based in the United Kingdom to change money from the United States dollars to rand.
The woman invited the man to a house in North End where the transaction was supposed to take place.
"Acting on the information, the complainant went to the said address where two unknown adults attacked and robbed him of ZAR200 000 and drove off with the man's Toyota Ist registration number ADV 8028," said Snr Asst Comm Charamba.
Snr Asst Comm Charamba said in a related case that happened on the same day, a woman lost $16 133,85 when thieves stole her bank card and made several purchases at various shops in Bulawayo within a few hours.
Snr Asst Comm Charamba said the woman had sent her daughter to pay a DSTV subscription using her bank card.
"The complainant then received text messages of various transactions which had been made in shops in Bulawayo on her cellphone. She later received a call from the bank advising that her daughter had just reported that her bank card had been stolen together with her cellphone in which the card pin had been saved. Total defrauded is $16 133,85 and nothing was recovered."
"They should not write down their pin numbers on pieces of paper or save them in cellphones as these may fall in the wrong hands," she said.
Snr Asst Comm Charamba also warned members of the public to desist from engaging in illicit deals which end up exposing them to dangers and loss of valuable assets.
"Individuals and corporates should conduct transactions through financial institutions," she said.
The cases come at a time police have also reported that cases of card cloning in Bulawayo have increased where criminals duplicate people's bank cards and then make withdrawals.
The victims only come to know about the crime after receiving text messages confirming successful transactions or later when they are told that they do not have sufficient funds in their accounts.
Bulawayo is also home to a number of money changers, known as osiphatheleni who are always in possession of large sums of money. Some of the money changers have fallen prey to thieves in the past few days.
Source - zimpapers
