Staff Writer
Police’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) have crackdown on some members of phantom money syndicate targeting mobile money and banking system in Zimbabwe.
The manipulation was organized by internal system administrators who were recruiting architects across financial sector who were initiating nodes request for debiting transaction and authorising them at the recipient end without validating any request
The transactions were initiated and declined at OneMoney but successfully credited at EcoCash using EFT and ZimSwitch platforms, FBC trust account would then demand OneMoney to settle the transaction.
Tawanda Zimvu and Kumbirai Mhishi have so far been arrested over the funincial crime activity.
The first successful hit was against POSB bank where thousands of ZiG were siphoned from their account.
The system manipulators-initiated communication nodes, with transaction requests to debit targeted bank sources and delivered to recipients as Messaging formats
Tomran investments A company with high number of such transactions, whose directors Tawanda Zimvu and Kumbirai Mhishi have been arrested
The plot was exposed when the same nodes were initiated against NetOne’s One Money through ZimSwitch RTGS system with a staggering zig 17million request, an amount they refused to settle
OneMoney was requested to honor a trust money account settling ZiG17 million to FBC bank a payment way above normal transaction raising an alarm as they refused to settle the request
“Surprising the transactions were all above the designated bank limits, but the ZimSwitch gateway approved these transactions,” the source said.
Prisca Tsvakai, Takuenda Gwaranda, Learnmore Gona, Uwen Gonyora are amongst those that are under investigation. More arrests are expected as the net closes on phantom money creators
The move Undermines the stability of the Zig currency and indeed a threat to national security as it creates phantom money that can flood the money without sources
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