BOZ PROBES CIVIL SERVANT SWINDLE

By KETRA KALUNGA THE Bank of Zambia (BOZ) has instituted investigations into the case where scores of  civil servants in Kapiri Mposhi have been swindled out of their salaries and life savings by fraudsters purporting to be Zanaco employees through a phone scam. Scores of civil servants are in a quandary as their life savings and salaries from the Zambia National Commercial Bank (ZANACO) have vanished in a phone scam. BOZ assistant director of communications, Bersnart Mwanza said investigations into the matter had been instituted through the security department. “The security department will institute investigations into the matter,” she said. The fraudster claiming to be a Zanaco employee called clients with XAPIT accounts informing them that the bank had embarked on an exercise of changing the secret code for XAPIT users from 4 to 5 digits. The unsuspecting clients then divulged their pin codes  and soon after their accounts were accessed, money was being withdrawn through account transfers. And Central Province Police Commissioner, Chola Katanga confirmed the unfortunate incident and assured that his office would engage the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority “ZICTA ” to ensure that the conmen are found and punished in accordance with the law. The Daily Nation has interviewed five of the victims who include three female nurses at Kapiri Mposhi Urban Clinic who were swindled on Tuesday and Wednesday  last week respectively by an unidentified male who called them using the same Airtel line. One of the victims who is a nurse explained that she was swindled money amounting to 3, 850 on Tuesday by the trickster who told her to change the secret code while her workmate lost K10,000. An old man was found crying in the bank after losing his K600 saings. Other workers were too embarrassed to disclose the details.  She explained that when queried why such important changes involving one’s account secret code were being made through a phone call, the conmen explained that it was in order to avoid overcrowding in the bank to prevent the spread of COVID-19. BACKGROUND: CIVIL SERVANTS SWINDLED