A retired civil servant has complained that three men have duped her out of more than K19 million which was pension money she earned after working for Malawi Government for 31 years.
In a video which is trending on social media, the woman identified as Rhoda Zulu recounted how the alleged scammers tricked her into giving them K26 million.
According to the woman, after getting her pension money, she bought a tanker and a horse. However, the tanker had mechanical issues and she decided to buy another tanker.
She consulted a man identified as Gift from Dedza who took her to Area 49 to meet a man called Mr Mkwende.
Mkwende contacted his friend identified as Chiyanjano who is based in the United Kingdom. Kadzuwa advised the woman to pay deposit for the tanker.
“They asked me how much money I had, and I told them I had K10 million. Mr Mkwende gave an account number for New Dawn Commercial to which I deposited the money,” said Zulu.
She added that she didn’t know at the time that the account belonged to Mr Mkwende.
Later, Mkwende told Zulu that she needed to deposit more money and she managed to raise K5 million which she sent to the account. After some time, they told Zulu to add more money saying the tanker which they wanted to sell had been sold to another person.
“So I sent K2 million one day and an addition K2 million on another day taking the whole amount to K19 million,” said Zulu.
She further said that when the tanker arrived in Namibia, Mkwende demanded more money but Zulu had no money to give him. He also demanded additional payment when the tanker arrived at the Malawi border. That is when Zulu reported the matter to police.
According to Zulu, Police froze accounts of New Dawn Commercials but later the account was unfrozen without explanation from the police. At this point, Zulu did not know what to do because she felt she had exhausted all possible ways of getting assistance.
Afar some time, the tanker had been dumped at Kanengo and she was not informed or given any document by Chiyanjano.
“They did not want me to know that they bought the tanker at 1,000 British pounds (about K2.4 million),” said Zulu.
After a buyer made an offer to buy the tanker, the documents were released but only after K14 million was sent to Chiyanjano’s account. That was when she realized the real price of the tanker.
According to Zulu, she sent a total of K26 million to the scammers and has since asked for assistance to recover her money.
“I am currently sick and do not have any money to use. I feel that as it is, I worked for Mkwende, Chiyanjano and Gift,” said Zulu.
