James Malolo from Emthunzini suburb was on Wednesday found
in possession of 78 active Zimswitch cards belonging to various corporates and
individuals which he has allegedly been using to lavishly shop at supermarkets
and wholesale outlets.
Card-cloning is the duplicating of bank cards by criminals
after acquiring information contained in the magnetic strip of the card.
Normally, criminals will have a copy that they use to make
transactions and the owner of the card may only find out when money suddenly
starts disappearing from their account.
Card cloning has become rampant in Zimbabwe as syndicates
are taking advantage of the uptake of plastic money by business organisations
and members of the public.
Fraudsters need to distract victims for a fraction of a
second to put their ATM cards through a “card skimming” machine to make
duplicates.
Malolo ran out of luck on Tuesday when a woman based in
Harare was tipped off by an alert till operator at a wholesaler in the city,
that someone had just used her banking details to make a $12 000 transaction.
Upon verifying and looking at the closed-circuit television
(CCTV) footage, the wholesaler identified Malolo as the culprit and realised he
was a regular customer. Malolo went back to the same wholesale on Wednesday
which led to his arrest.
Bulawayo provincial police spokesperson Inspector Abednico
Ncube yesterday said police have linked Malolo to a number of ATM card scams
including a similar case where Nyaradzo Funeral Assurance Company lost $203 673
after someone mysteriously swiped for groceries and withdrew cash earlier this
year.
Insp Ncube said members of the public who got unexplained
deductions from their banks should approach the police in case they are
Malolo’s victims. He applauded members of the public for helping police with information
that led to Malolo’s arrest.
“Police officers in Bulawayo from the Commercial Crimes
Division based at Drill Hall, received a tip-off that there was a person who
was in the business of cloning cards. The man is originally from Hwange and was
caught after using a card belonging to a woman in Harare,” said Insp Ncube.
“He is linked with four other crimes that we have confirmed
and upon searching him, our members recovered 78 cards which we are yet to
establish if they have been used to commit crime.”
Insp Ncube said Malolo is helping police with
investigations and will appear in court soon.
“I appeal to those facing discrepancies in their accounts
to visit their banks and study their account to see if there is anything amiss.
If they suspect that their accounts have been tampered with, they may approach
our offices and we trace in case their cards have been cloned.”
Insp Ncube said the Nyaradzo incident occurred on December
20 when the accountant at the funeral assurance company gave an ATM card to
Genesis Mlala (35), residing at Pumula East, who is the internal security
officer in the company, to buy groceries for the kitchen.
Upon making a transaction at OK Mart, the card declined due
to lack of funds, said Insp Ncube.
Investigations were carried out by the company and an
online bank statement request revealed that an unknown person swiped using the
company ATM card at various shops in the city centre and made withdrawals
without company approval.
According to the police, 154 cases of card cloning were
reported in 2018 and US$200 000 was lost within three months. In 2019 some banks in the country suspended
balance enquiry on all POS devices to stem card cloning fraud. Chronicle
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