Beware of the Covid-19 Fund Scam

2020-06-15

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) would like to warn the general public and small businesses to be cautious of scams requesting them to submit their banking information for having qualified for government’s 50% Covid-19 intervention fund.

This follows complaints received by the Commission from the general public that some individuals are sending text messages requesting people to verify their bank account details as a prerequisite to having money credited in their account when in fact not.

The Commission has noted that fraudsters have taken advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic to extort money from unsuspecting individuals by using various electronic platforms with intent to divert money to their personal accounts. The public may wish to know that the Government will never request for personal banking details using an SMS or WhatsApp channel.

Further, the Commission urges the public not to offer or disclose their banking information like name, date of birth, phone number and card serial numbers to over SMS, WhatsApp or the unsecure Internet pages as doing so would put them at great risk of losing their hard earned money to fraudsters.

In view of the foregoing, the Commission is working with the Zambia Information and Communication Technologies Authority (ZICTA) and Zambia Police to ensure that perpetrators of such fraudulent conduct are identified and punished. Therefore, all such cases should be reported to a nearest police station or to the Commission on the toll-free line 5678 or the ZICTA toll free line 7070.

Members of the public may wish to know that this fraudulent conduct is prohibited under Section 308 of the Penal Code Chapter 87 of the Laws of Zambia and offenders are liable to imprisonment for 3 years.

Rainford Mutabi

Rainford Mutabi