Mmegi

Inside Botswana’s growing digital safety challenge

Alarming trend: Cyberscams are increasing in frequency in the country
Alarming trend: Cyberscams are increasing in frequency in the country

When the question was asked, the room fell silent. "How many of you know someone who has been scammed using a mobile phone?" Slowly, hands began to rise. One hand became five. Five became twenty. Before long, almost everyone in the room had either lost money themselves or knew someone who had.

That moment has become a familiar scene for facilitators behind the Village Digital Safety Botswana Initiative, a voluntary community outreach programme that is quietly uncovering a reality many never imagined. Cybercrime has reached Botswana's villages.

Not through sophisticated computer hackers breaking into networks, but through simple phone calls, WhatsApp messages, fake competitions, fraudulent investment schemes and mobile money scams that prey on trust rather than technology.

Editor's Comment
The Boko-led administration has to tread carefully

‘When you make peace withyourself, you make peace with the world’- Maha GhosanandaThis may come at a huge cost if not handled properly. What started off on Labour Day in Letlhakane this year, where Boko was in attendance when the militant lawyer-cum-trade unionist, Robert Rabasimane rebutted the President’s address in defence of the trade union has seemingly spiralled out of control. The issue is now creating a cat-and-mouse type of a...

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