By BUUMBA CHIMBULU
CUSTOMERS in rural areas are at a high risk of being swindled by fraudsters due to little awareness on the negative vice which has penetrated the financial sector.
There is high likelihood that the rural customer may not know how to deal with suspicious transactions occasioning on their account and would rather just sit by and complain to no one in particular.
This is according to the Bankers Association of Zambia (BAZ) fraud prevention and security committee member, Vitalis Hamusonde, who observed that commercial banks tend to concentrate their customer fraud awareness campaigns to urban customers.
Mr Hamusonde explained that the position of the rural customer made them even more vulnerable to fraud attacks.
He stated that the rural communities tend to be left out or receive less attention yet there were people in rural areas that generated a lot of money and had to travel distances to find a bank in which to deposit their money.
“With little awareness on fraud, the rural customer is at high risk of losing all their savings. There is also the inherent danger that digitalisation usage in rural areas may pose challenges and this would work positively for fraudsters.
“The rural communities however tend to be left out or receive less attention yet there are people in rural areas that generate a lot of money and have to travel distances to find a bank in which to deposit their money,” he said in an interview.
Mr Hamusonde also said Fraud and Prevention Managers (FPM) had been called upon to take specific steps to minimise the likelihood of fraud amongst rural customers.
FPM, he explained, had also been encouraged to monitor the occurrence of some of the more common types of fraud and to deal with their consequences more effectively.
“We encourage the Managers to send out the messages and alerts below to all and in particular the rural communities,” Mr Hamusonde said.
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