Aletta Shikololo

WINDHOEK -The Bank of Namibia (BoN) has once again cautioned members of the public not to participate in online
based financial schemes as this could expose them to the risk of losing their hard-earned cash or investments and/or possibly face criminal prosecution in worst case scenarios.

Kazembire Zemburuka, the Deputy Director for Corporate Communications at the BoN stated, “The Bank has become
aware of the rise of online based financial schemes and has commenced with the assessment process to determine their
legitimacy. Once the assessment process has been completed, the Bank will communicate its position on the matter to the
public.” One of the popular scam going viral on social media currently is “money flip” according to the victims of this
kind of scam. The scammers request random people on social media, mostly on Instagram and Facebook and claim that
one can turn a small investment of US$100 (N$1361), US$200 (N$2723), US$300 (N$4081) or more into sums of US$
1000 (N$13,609), US$ 2000 (N$27,218) and so forth.

One of the victim of “money flip” who prefers to remain anonymous has told New Era that, “These scammers says
they work for Western Union and their social media accounts are extremely tempting as they have pictures of happy investors posing with stacks of cash and testimonials about how easy it is to make money”.

Rah Simpson, 20-year-old student at the University of Namibia who is also a victim to the fraud adds that, “the
scammer told me to invest a US$100 (N$1361) and she will flip it to $1000 (N$13,609) within 30 minutes. A
After sending U$ 100 which is N$ 1362.44 through Western Union, her Instagram account disappeared and I could not get
hold of her.” “This kind of scheme is simply too good to be true. Unfortunately, this is a typical characteristic of an illegal
financial scheme meant to entice unsuspecting investors,” said Zemburuka.

“We are aware of this kind of scam and we would like to urge the public not to send money to unknown people that claim
quick returns on investments. So far we are looking into this matter,” said the corporate communications director.
The Bank of Namibia continues to discharge its responsibility in a pro-active and vigilant manner, in order
to take the necessary action as stipulated in the relevant law.

Though statistics were not given a recent news report from neighbouring South Africa quoting the Financial  Intelligence Centre (FIC) had revealed that criminals are also increasingly targeting South African internet users - like they
do in Namibia - with multiple scams. The report showed a list of multiple scams from inheritance fraud, kidney charity scams, fake job scams, online gaming scams and much more.