MBABANE: Zimbabwean alleged scammers paid Two thousand, seven hundred and fifty-eight Rands, fifty-six cents(R2758.56) to Swaziland News bank account for a suspicious promotional article.
The scammers first contacted Zipho Ngubeni, the South African Swaziland News Director and asked for the contacts details of editor Zweli Martin Dlamini.
“They asked to pay for a promotional(advertising)article and that link must be active on the website. I started to be suspicious after the lady spoke about online trading, she said some of their clients do online trading and they wanted to create a relationship with Swaziland News, they will pay about Three thousand Rands (R3000) per promotional article. While we were talking, they asked for banking details and I gave them but stated that, I will investigate first if they are credible before publishing their advertorial. The lady claimed to be working for ZimDay, a Zimbabwean publication but the money came from the United Kingdom. Considering the fact that they claimed to be working with giant companies, there’s no way the payment could be processed from a personal account. The links in the article were also suspicious even though some, were seeking to direct the readers to genuine companies.They use legitimate names of employees from reputable companies so that when you call to verify(for example;) the person will call himself Colani Maseko from Swaziland News so that when you call Swaziland News and verify if they know Colani, they will tell you, “Yes Colani is working here” and then you will be deceived”, said the editor.
The editor further said, the decision to reject the offer and reverse the money was meant to protect readers from being scammed.
“Once we publish this promotional article, our readers globally will be scammed by clicking on the links provided in the advertorial, they will believe that the advertised products are legitimate considering the fact that, they were advertised in a reputable online publication, that’s why the scammers were trying to have the advertising article published here. Maybe we can warn readers to be vigilant of such even on other platforms”, said the editor.
CYBER CRIME: Zimbabwean alleged scammers pay R2758.56 on Swaziland News bank account for questionable promotional article, editor refuses to publish,reverses money.