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Director-general of the Drug Enforcement Commission, Nason Banda, said investigations kicked off after authorities noticed a spike in the number of cyber-related fraud cases and many people complained about losing money from their mobile phones or bank accounts.
An increasing number of cybercrimes are reported from Zambia. As a result of tight vigilance on the scammers by the cybercrime prevention authorities in the Southern African country, 77 people including 22 Chinese nationals were arrested. The network of scammers was targeting innocent people from different nationalities including Zambia, Singapore, Peru, and the United Arab Emirates. The Magistrates Court in the capital, Lusaka, jailed them for periods ranging from 7 to 11 years.
Director-general of the Drug Enforcement Commission, Nason Banda, said investigations kicked off after authorities noticed a spike in the number of cyber-related fraud cases and many people complained about losing money from their mobile phones or bank accounts.
Officers from the commission, police, the immigration department, and the anti-terrorism unit in April swooped on a Chinese-run business in an upmarket suburb of Lusaka, arresting the 77. Authorities recovered over 13,000 local and foreign mobile phone SIM cards, two firearms, and 78 rounds of ammunition during the raid.
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The business firm, named Golden Top Support Services, had employed unsuspecting Zambians aged between 20 and 25 to use the SIM cards to engage “in deceptive conversations with unsuspecting mobile users across various platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram, chat rooms, and others, using scripted dialogues,” Banda said in April after the raid.
