Social engineering attacks such as phishing and scamming are on the increase in Namibia, as many people continue to fall prey to psychological manipulation by being tricked into making security mistakes or giving out sensitive information.
Phishing, usually used to scam, occurs when a deceiving and fraudulent email is sent, purporting to be from a reputable company or an individual, to reveal personal information such as passwords or credit card numbers.
In the wake of a rise in e-wallet scams, First National Bank (FNB) Namibia says a lack of understanding of the role of the one-time pin (OTP) is the leading cause of clients falling victim to conmen.
During a media engagement with FNB, the bank revealed that 788 fraudulent e-wallet transactions were recorded between August 2022 and August 2023.
That equates to about N$600,000 stolen from would-be e-wallet recipients.
The head of transaction and digital banking, Yeoman Hamilton, explained that this is an elaborate scam that happens over time.
There are online scammers that have been targeting various Government agencies; one of the most recent is the Ministry of Agriculture, Water, and Land Reform.
nbc News anchor Celma Ndhikwa spoke to Jona Musheko, the Ministry's spokesperson, about recent scams targeting farmers.
The Namibian Police Force (NamPol) is receiving an increasing number of complaints from members of the public who have fallen victim to scams.
The police force, in a media statement on Thursday, said scammers used various approaches, such as calling individuals claiming to be police officers and requesting that money be transferred through electronic bank transactions in exchange for their relatives’ release from police custody.
The Bank of Namibia (BoN) is warning the public to be on alert as there is an increase in "419 scams", well-known for duping unsuspecting participants of non-existent investment funds into paying a certain amount of money to fraudsters.
The bank’s Director of Strategic Communications, Kazembire Zemburuka, says the bank has noticed an increasing number of scammers seeking unsolicited financial assistance from Namibians to finance the country’s developmental agenda.
