Warn us of impending floods
Mmegi Editor | Wednesday October 4, 2017 17:18
It is always updating the nation about the weather conditions. It does not wait for a disaster to happen and then react. Remember early this year when they warned us about Cyclone Dineo, which left a trail of destruction. We knew earlier that the second half of the rainy season in January and February 2017 would be characterised by heavy rains countrywide, with a risk of flooding on the scale of the disasters that occurred in the year 2000. The rainy season is upon us and we expect this wonderful department to do as they always do. We do not want to be caught unprepared if there are likely floods during the upcoming rain season. The Disaster Management Committee should also start capacity-building exercises in low areas prone to flooding.
Be vigilant of
money scammers
We are two months away from the Christmas festive season and many innocent Batswana will lose money to scammers. In our sister publication, we reported about that some First National Bank Botswana (FNBB) customers crying foul that money was mysteriously withdrawn from their accounts by international fake bank accounts.
The bank has not refuted the allegations and the police also confirm that they are investigating the matter. It came to light that the recent fraud activities have impacted other players in the banking industry throughout sub-Saharan Africa. This shows that scammers are working around the clock to perfect their swindling game.
We trust that all our local banks have robust security measures in place to prevent hacking of customers’ accounts. We also call upon customers never to reveal their usernames and passwords to strangers online. Passwords and Personal Identity Numbers (PIN) should always remain confidential. The bank officials always remind their customers about this important message but it seems some do not care to listen and end up being victim of international scammers.
In this era there are people out there who respond to scammers sending them messages through emails or social media that they have inherited millions of Dollars that they need to send to the recipients of their messages. Their message is always the same; the money belonged to their fathers who were high profile politicians in some despotic African country governments.
After their parents died, they were left with millions of Dollars and they need somebody in a foreign country to transfer the money to, so that they too could easily access the loot. In return, they say the recipient will be rewarded with millions for his gesture. The message is always poorly written and they also demand personal banking details about their would-be-victims. These scoundrels never get tired of sending these messages using different accounts and identities. Some poor folks end up believing these rogues and send them their details. Next, they cry foul that they have been swindled. Let us be vigilant and be careful when we deal with strangers online.
Today’s thought
“My little scam in April ‘85 went like this:
Give me $50,000; here’s some names of some
people we’ve recruited.”
– Aldrich Ames