Alleged eMAP Hack Leaves Parents At The Mercy Of Cybercriminals

Cybercrime has taken a life of its own in Zimbabwe and the US$42 million lost due to cybercrime in the first quarter of 2019 should’ve been enough to force our government to act more decisively regarding this issue but that’s not the case.

Cybercrime is still here and card cloning stories make their way into the news cycle so frequently its hard to see any other outcome apart from the desensitization of the public to the scale of the problem of cybercrime in our country.

The most recent form of cybercrime that has reared its head is taking advantage of parents’ desperation to secure form 1 places for their children after two accounts (belonging to Rusunguko and Anderson respectively) on eMAP allegedly got hacked.

If the platform were hacked as is being suggested it would make it very easy for the hackers to then access the parents who have applied for places for their children at these schools since parents/guardians leave their phone numbers as part of the application process.

Congratulations, your child is being offered a form 1 2020 place. You confirm by paying 9660 into ZB First Street Acc No. 4112-340606-081 and $1645 into ZB First Street Acc No 4112-340606-080.

Bring proof of payment and child to school for registration. The offer is valid until Friday 29 November 2019. Failure to meet the deadline the deadline will be withdrawn and given other learners on Monday 2 December 2019.

Rusununguko High School

The alleged text from Cybercriminals

Seeing that parents may be desperate to secure a place for their child and the eMAP platform states that parents will be informed via text, they may then send the money before actually confirming if indeed this is the school.

Seeing that the message circulating has two bank account numbers if those schools’ accounts have been compromised it won’t be too difficult to actually figure out who is behind the malicious hoax.