adminMANY of us want a good life, to be rich and afford just about everything we want.
Of course, it generally takes sweat, and sacrifice, to acquire material riches.
Some take ages to build their empires from scratch while others inherit their wealth.
There are, however, those who get rich overnight, through shady deals.
But, what counts at the end of the day are riches.
However, it takes a split of a second to lose what has been accumulated, over the years, out of hard work, resilience and focus.
Such sad scenarios are now common these days.
This happens when one gives in to the trickery of fraudsters.
Creditors, too, have left some poor after failing to settle financial loans.
Global fraud has also left some people with nothing after years of dedication to accumulate their wealth. Zimbabweans have not been spared from this web where con artists continue digging deep into their bags of trickery.
The new breed of con artists are faith healers and self-styled prophets who are preying on unsuspecting congregants.
Faith healers, known as Tsikamutandas, are tormenting the rural folks by duping them of their livestock.
In urban areas, stylish prophets are milking congregants of their wealth under the banner of “seeding” to acquire more gains.
Some have lost cars, houses and even cash under the fantasy “seeding” scheme. So gullible are congregants that they only realise it when all their wealth is gone.
On July 5, we carried a touching story of a local church pastor, who has been indoctrinating his congregants to “seed” their cars, in order for them to gain wealth like houses and better vehicles.
Some have since repossessed their cars but the prophet remains adamant that he was clean during the entire process. He even insisted he has engaged lawyers to reclaim the vehicles.
The cars, he claimed, were not given to him personally but to the ministry which he leads.
It’s really sad to note how someone can stoop so low and get brainwashed by the self-styled men of cloth.
Such cases should open the eyes of many, especially the gullible, who have fallen victim to such trickery.
With similar cases pending in the courts of law, where some congregants either win or lose, it must come as a lesson.
In life, never take a gamble with what you have sweated for.
Police chiefs, and other law enforcement agents, should be at the forefront to save our people from crooks who want to reap from what they did not sow.
Raising awareness against such crooks is the only way to go if we are to beat these con artists who are on the loose.
It’s hard being fleeced of something you have worked very hard to get.
As a way forward, let’s unite and fight global fraud, which is spreading like a veld fire.
To those who want easy wealth, it’s high time they learn to work.
As they say, there are no shortcuts to success but it takes a split of a second to lose riches.
Online Reporter