adminTALES of daring con artists, preying on the gullible, continue to make sad reading.
No matter how we raise the alarm about these crooks, new victims are recorded on a daily basis. Despite all our efforts, as H-Metro, to educate would-be victims, we seem to be losing this war.
Old tricks to dupe people continue to be employed by these crooks.
Both the poor and the rich have not been spared from this web.
So daring are these con artists that they have the guts to even abuse the highest offices on the land.
Bogus police officers, fake soldiers and guys impersonating medical practitioners, are on prowl.
The media, too, has been targeted by the same villains who seemingly do not have any shame.
In today’s issue, we are warning people of fake H-Metro agents, who are on an extortion spree.
Our name has been tainted by some of these crooks, who have gone to extremes of abusing our logo and identity, to con people.
Yesterday, we busted a syndicate masquerading as H-Metro staffers.
We received a tip-off that a couple of fraudsters at Bechmag Herbal Solutions have been calling for adverts, via a WhatsApp group named H_Metro News 356, where they are charging as little as US$5 and up to US$25 for an advert.
These adverts are said to run for five days, or more, in the WhatsApp groups. Undercover investigations showed the crew has been operating at Waydone House, at the corner of Mbuya Nehanda, and Kwame Nkrumah Avenue.
They claimed to be H-Metro agents with a reach of 180 000 subscribers in over 700 groups.
This is not true as H-Metro only has 13 official WhatsApp groups.
After tracing the fraudsters, one of them, Sean Karangura, led us to Bechmag Herbal Solutions, where we met four agents. The group has an H-Metro logo on its profile and is administered by two bogus characters, in the name of Shyne Karangura (O718203375), who use an unregistered NetOne number 0718422907.
After going through inquiries, unsuspecting clients are advised to EcoCash on 0779541275, which is registered under Sean Karangura.
Although we managed to accomplish our mission, by exposing these daring thieves, we hope more people won’t fall prey to these people.
We would like to put a disclaimer that we don’t have anything like H_Metro News 356.
Those who want to do genuine business with us can always visit Herald House at the corner of Sam Nujoma Street and George Silundika Avenue.
We have other offices in other big and small towns dotted around the country. As a stable, we are concerned when people are being fleeced using our name.
To ensure that we flush out these criminals, we will continue engaging the police to help us bring these lads of shame to book. We also welcome your tip-offs when such crooks prey on our readers .
While this country’s first ever lively tabloid, focussing on real life and real drama, has left noticeable footprints, it’s very bad when crooks are tarnishing our brand.
As stakeholders, let’s unite and flush out con artists abusing our names.
Online Reporter