Cyber crime poses challenge to police

Correspondent | Thursday February 13, 2014 21:00

Even though the offence of cyber crime is extraditable, it is often a challenge for the police to utilise government resources in search of suspects who in the end will be charged with minor offences such as insult.

So far, there is no specialist unit in Botswana dealing with cyber crime. The Serious Crimes Squad, under the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) deals with the offence.

The head of the anti-fraud section, Assistant Superintendent, Maikaelelo Chepete, said police stations play a role in dealing with cyber crime by making reports for further investigation.

“Cyber crime presentations are included in the curriculum of police undergoing detective training as a way of fighting such crimes,” said Chepete.

He explained that the most common cyber crime involve fraudulent commercial or monetary transactions; and card cloning where skimming devices are placed in ATM machines to duplicate information from a victim’s debit card. In fraudulent online shopping, victims are lured into fully paying for non-existent goods before delivery.

Chepete denied that security officers harass certain individuals to obtain information, hack into their social media accounts or tap their phones. He said he had not come across such reports and there is no law that permits the police to do such things.

He said when they need such information for evidence in a case, they follow the legal route and obtain court orders. He said that last year, they arrested people in connection with card cloning. The suspects have since disappeared after they were granted bail.n