Suburban
A Borrowdale Ratepayers and Residents Association (BRRA) official has issued a stern warning across Borrowdale virtual platforms cautioning residents on the rising rate of cybercrime.
Peter Tanyanyiwa Suburban Reporter
The official who was recently a victim of financial identity theft, where criminals were using the official’s pictures on online platforms asking for huge amounts of money from friends and relatives.
The official who requested anonymity said there have been several such reported cases, and residents should be always alert and take steps to confirm the identity of anyone who will be asking them for money or to make any payments.
“Please don’t be scammed, there is still someone using my profile picture and sending out messages asking for money to be transferred outside country, saying I will pay them here in Zimbabwe. This is not me. It is happening to a lot of people, not just me. Please be aware. Cyber-crime is global, one has to do due diligence and check before sending by calling the person concerned. People trust me, so they just send money,” the official said.
“This first happened a while ago, it’s the same person it seems and they then tried it last week with another of my friends. Luckily, he called me this morning to verify. Big amounts of money are asked to be transferred and then they say they will pay that person back. They were using South African bank accounts. I believe that they took a profile picture of mine off Facebook. Then they check my friends list and message them.
“The police say a report must be made by the person who was approached for the money. I have since been told its probably robot messaging common when you have scam apps that pre-record and computerise your frequent contacts, photos in your phone and then impersonate the number in use. It’s called spoofing, its nefarious social engineering so going to NetOne (cellphone service provider) won’t help much, its bogus creation of a number. The rightful owner of that number becomes a victim too,” the official said.
The BRRA official said identity thieves are now increasingly using computer technology to obtain other people’s personal information for identity fraud. To find such information, they may search the hard drives of stolen or discarded computers; hack into computers or computer networks; access computer-based public records; use information-gathering malware to infect computers; browse social networking sites; or use deceptive emails or text messages.
“They get the names in your phone by having unsecured apps, or unsecured phone calls one might have answered that gives them remote control of your device through planting malware that ferrets out and steals information, downloads it and manipulate it.
“Tracking the bank details: this is again an area of great interest, one that will show you that these scammers are extremely intelligent. They use synthetic identities to open multiple bank accounts that they drain within real time. They can even buy identities on the dark web. It’s hard for banks to detect them, so as residents we have to be alert and confirm with the person, we will be sending money first,” said the official.
