Elliot Luka, one of an elite group of certified fraud examiners in Botswana, told Business Week that various manifestations of fraud were appearing in increasing sectors of the economy. According to Luka, one of the prevalent frauds, known as land flips, is related to the proliferation of bogus property and real estate agents.
"We have heard cases where someone would say 'here's my empty house and I'm the owner or agent,' and even have the keys and demand a deposit," he said in a recent interview. "The real owner then pitches up to say 'that's my house.' I have come upon these cases and they are really very serious." Even with legislation, the Real Estate Institute of Botswana, is battling to stamp out bogus agents who are seeing opportunities in the extreme accommodation supply/demand gap in most urban areas. Luka added that besides "land flips," "diploma mills" were also an emerging type of fraud in the country. In this instance, he said, the fraud involved unethical private education institutions offering unrecognised and unqualified courses to unsuspecting learners.
