COPS WARN AS ... SCAMMERS NOW POSE AS HIT MEN, DEMAND CASH

MBABANE – There is a new breed of scammers.

They pose as hit men, popularly known as tinkabi. It has been gathered that these scammers call their targets and inform them that they have been hired to kill them. They are said to demand money ranging between E20 000 and E40 000 from their targets. According to the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS), two new cases are currently being investigated. The Oxford Dictionary defines a hit man as a person who is paid to kill someone, especially for a criminal or political organisation. This kind of practice is common in the Republic of South Africa (SA). The targeted individuals are said to have reported their suspicions before losing their hard-earned money.

Revealed

The police revealed that the scammers in the cases under investigation used South African SIM cards to make the calls. Assistant Commissioner Director Fraud and Commercial Unit, Nicholas Jele, said the people who are targets are those who have a lot of money. According to Jele, the charlatans sent SMSes to the victims, stating that they were in KwaZulu-Natal, hired by some people to kill them. “These fraudsters normally tell their targets that they have received a call from someone in Eswatini, asking them to hire hit men on their behalf to kill them. They also tell them that they have paid up to E40 000. Once they say that, as a target, you can see how high you can jump in terms of paying, so that you are not murdered,” said Jele. Furthermore, Jele pointed out that the scammers make use of another narrative, where they inform the victims of their religious beliefs.

Scammers

“Some of the scammers praise the victims for being staunch believers in God or being protected by their ancestors, saying that is why they feel tempted to tell their targets about such evil intentions against them and how they are supposed to carry out the task of eliminating the target. This is the new trend we are seeing on the block,” said Jele. He pleaded with the public to be cautious of any suspicious calls they receive. He indicated that the scammers find it hard to link the assassination with the reason behind it.

“The scammers are unable to give clear explanations or link why they have been assigned to carry out the murder. In case they have your personal information, they then link the reasons for them being hired to carry out the task. The scammers’ intention is to con those individuals their monies. Should you receive such a call, do not hesitate to report or call the police with immediate effect. So far, we have two fresh cases. They managed to call me after receiving such suspicious calls from unknown people before losing their money,” he said.
Jele assured the public that they are able to make investigations in collaboration with companies such as MTN, which assist them with crucial information.

Fraudsters

He said the police are able to get the fraudsters using SA SIM cards, despite the fact that they are not registered to anyone’s name. He was responding to questions on how possible it is for them to apprehend the scammers.“It is possible to arrest scammers who commit offences using SA SIM cards, although we cannot divulge our techniques. Once we disclose such information, our future operations might be affected.”According to Jele, they work together with SA police and local network companies in locating the exact spot the scammer was at the time of executing the offence.He pleaded with the public to never fall prey to this new kind of scam.

Recently, emaSwati were conned money amounting to E695 340 in a period of eight months this year, while trying to pay rents or buy houses or plots via social media.A few weeks ago, this publication wrote an article where the Eswatini Bankers Association (EBA) indicated that certain individuals and companies in the country were scammed approximately E1.5 million.According to EBA, the victims were reported to have been scammed from January 2024, to date.The scammers, according to the association, committed such fraudulent activities through the use of known police officers and bank staff. The association further stated that the companies lost the money after the charlatans faked the letters before sending emails as a way of demanding payments.

Cautious

Fraud Prevention Liaising Committee’s, Nomfundo Mkhatshwa, pleaded with the public to be cautious about this trend used by scammers to con emaSwati and companies.On the first type of scam, Mkhatshwa said the fraudsters call the bank clients or send SMS, where they issue threats of likely to lose their monies, since their bank accounts had been compromised. She said the swindlers tell the bank account holders to act with immediate effect in order not to lose their monies. Mkhatshwa also said the swindlers had developed another strategy of using the names of known police officers under the Cybercrime Unit and those employed by the banks to con the people. She said the victims are then being told by the scammers that some bank staff will attend to them shortly in sorting out their account issues to avoid being defrauded.

Also, about two months ago, this publication ran a story where scammers stole E4 586 647 from January to July.Online shopping, online investment, and business email compromise were some of the contributing factors that led to emaSwati losing about E5 million within that period.According to the police report, 121 fraud cases were reported where a sum of money totalling E4 586 647 was lost. The police stated that almost half of the money was lost through business email compromise, whereby criminals attempt to trick a senior executive (or budget holder) into transferring funds or revealing sensitive information.

Worth noting is that 602 reported cases of fraud resulted in Eswatini losing close to E700 million in 2023. The statistics increased by 1 000 per cent. In 2023, the country is reported to have lost about E675 185 309.95 as compared to 2022, where 502 reported cases were attributed to E55 296 552 26. The statistics indicate that there were 226 internet fraud cases, followed by miscellaneous fraud (220), commercial ATM (32), money not declared (28), crypto currency (10), and counterfeit (3).

In 2023, the Eswatini Bankers Association (EBA) also reported that banking customers lost a sum of E334 000 in 23 reported new scams by con artists between July and November 2023. EBA President Zakhele Lukhele, during the previous interview said the fraudsters committed such scam through the use of loan portals.A loan portal is a specially designed website that provides information about the specific loan from a lender and serves as a single point of access to such a loan.Lukhele indicated that customers experienced such kinds of scams online.
Explaining how they work, he said the fraudsters normally impersonate banks on social media, leading to members of the public falling victim after believing it to be authentic and thus losing their hard-earned monies, unknowingly.

Lukhele said the con artists normally ask the victims to share their confidential information such as log in credentials used on internet services and WhatsApp.According to the president, some customers end up getting tempted by sharing their information with these fraudsters on the social media platform, with the hope of getting the loans as promised.

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