Swakop woman defrauded of N$500 000 ‘inheritance’

Photo: File.

A self-employed woman from Swakopmund lost N$500 000 in an alleged bank fraud last weekend.

According to a Swakopmund police report, none of the sum has been recovered so far.

The incident occurred on Saturday morning at Treff Plaza.

According to the police report, the complainant claimed that she fell victim to a sophisticated scam where the alleged offender impersonated a bank official from the American-based Cottage Trust Bank.

The perpetrator initially reached out to her via email, instructing her to transfer her inherited funds from Cottage Trust Bank to her main account at Bank Windhoek.

As part of the scam, the woman received a code for transactions and was told that to access her funds, she needed to make a certain payment. Following these instructions, she made multiple transactions using the given code.

Subsequently, the alleged fraudster withdrew the funds from her account.

“Despite ongoing investigations, no arrests have been made yet,” police spokesperson deputy commissioner Kauna Shikwambi said, urging the public to directly contact their respective bank branches when they receive suspicious communications that involve fund transfers or payments.

The investigation into this fraud case is ongoing.

The report comes just as a three-day workshop on cross border crimes in Southern African Development Community concluded at Swakopmund, with much emphasis on the growing issues of scams, and electronic service payments, and their impact on the social, political and financial sectors.

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