Bulawayo Citizen Loses $40 000 To Card Cloning Scheme

A widow in Bulawayo lost over $40 000 in the most recent case of card cloning. Timmy Kuzhangaira allegedly cloned her late husband’s bank card details before going on to complete a number of transactions in retail.

It’s been reported that whilst Ms Watson (the widow) was paying for her groceries in a Bulawayo supermarket Mr Kuzhangaira copied her card number and the pin code. He then cloned the card and “went on to make several POS transactions at various retail outlets in Bulawayo and in the process prejudicing the complainant of $43 013.77” the prosecutor.

After Ms Watson discovered the illegal transactions she went on to report the matter to the police who accidentally bumped into Kuzhangaira at the same shopping centre which seems to have become his hunting grounds. He was found with 5 other cloned cards in his possession.

The trial of Kuzhangaira has been remanded to March 20 and he was granted $500 bail.

The RBZ taking action

Card cloning has become a bone of contention for both banks and law enforcement agents who are not well positioned to deal with cybercrime. In 2018 there were over 150 card cloning cases and on the back of such dire news, the ZRP came out and said they were not prepared to deal with cybercrime. In fact, they said they were far from ready…

Fortunately, the RBZ has announced some new measures that should be taken in the latest Monetary Policy Statement. The governor of the central bank has called for all banks to submit Cybersecurity policies by the end of this month. Banks issuing cards that do not meet the EMV standard have also been told to start issuing EMV compliant card at the same deadline.

Also read, Apparently Bank Cards Can Be Cloned Easily, Here Is How To Stay Safe