SWAKOPMUND – Five suspects were arrested on Saturday at Swakopmund for defrauding a Windhoek based company of N$500 000 through a card-cloning scam. Among the five suspects is a German woman in whose room during the arrest the police found two cloning devices, one from Germany and the other from Kenya.
The Namibian Police Force Regional Crime Investigations Coordinator for the Erongo Region, Deputy Commissioner Ottilie Kashuupulwa, yesterday confirmed the arrest and said the suspects allegedly hung around service stations to carry out their criminal activities. “They basically hung around the service stations where trucks destined for the north and countries such as Zimbabwe and Botswana are filled up. They then used the stolen petrol cards to fill up the trucks and were then paid in cash by the truck drivers,” she explained.
“It is believed that the woman came to Swakopmund to work. She booked herself and her Namibian boyfriend into a well-known hotel, where the two devices were found and confiscated by the police,” Kashuupulwa said. All five suspects are expected to appear today in the Swakopmund Magistrate’s Court on charges related to fraud and theft.
By Eveline de Klerk