Conmen target bank customers

Kampala.

Lydia Nantumbwe was conned of her Shs200,000 in November last year just outside a bank in Kampala. She had withdrawn the money to clear her child’s school fees balance.
About five steps outside the bank, she was stopped by a smartly dressed woman holding an expensive-looking handbag and phone. “Excuse me madam, I need your help. Give me 300,000 if you have it and I pay this girl. I have it on phone and I will withdraw it and refund you now,” the woman told Ms Nantumbwe.
As the woman engaged Ms Nantumbwe for help while pointing to the mobile money outlet, the woman who she supposedly owed money, charged at her, shouting: “Give me my money. I am tired of waiting. I want it now.”

Fooled
Unable to take in all that was happening, Ms Nantumbwe was fooled to believe the seemingly high-class woman beseeching her for help and yielded to her demand. She informed the woman, however, that she only had Shs200,000 and would, therefore, not be able to instantly help with the Shs300,000 that the woman needed.
The con woman was prepared for all eventualities and quickly said that she actually had Shs100,000 in her bag. Ms Nantumbwe, therefore, pulled out her Shs200,000 and gave it to her.

The woman pulled Shs100,000 out of her bag and ‘paid’ the irate woman, who immediately left as she hurled insults at the woman who had just paid her.
Seemingly happy with Ms Nantumbwe’s act of kindness, the woman she thought she had helped thanked her for saving her the embarrassment and immediately engaged her in a conversation as she explained how the ‘debt’ of Shs300,000 had come about. She did this as they walked to a mobile money outlet on the opposite side of the road.
Ms Nantumbwe all the while could not suspect that she was dealing with a thief.

The demeanor of the con woman did not give anything away. But everything changed in a second when a motorcycle suddenly emerged and the woman jumped on it as it sped away, leaving Ms Nantumbwe in shock and disbelief.
“She waited for when a vehicle was coming from the opposite side and she jumped on a boda boda which I think was already waiting for that moment. I could not risk my life to compete with the car and I just let her to go. I lost my money in a space of minutes,” Ms Nantumbwe says.

On the increase
Cases like Ms Nantumbwe’s that have been reported to the police in recent months are in the hundreds.
Records shared by a detective at Kampala Metropolitan police headquarters show that cases of people conned outside banking halls and ATMs have been on the rise over the recent years. A detective dealing with the records said such cases were 227 in 2015, and rose to 364 in 2016 and 488 in 2017.
One other victim who lost her money and phone just outside a banking hall on Kampala Road in such circumstances is Molly Kyakuhaire.
She says she withdrew Shs70,000 from an ATM and shortly afterwards, a woman came by holding a mobile phone. The woman asked Ms Kyakuhaire whether she had some bulk minutes because she wanted to call someone to pick her up and she had run out of credit. She claimed not to know Kampala very well.
The ‘lost’ woman seemed honest and Ms Kyakuhaire pulled out her wallet, which contained the money and her phone. The woman grabbed the wallet, jumped on to a waiting motorcycle and sped off. The motorcycle, Ms Kyomuhaire says, was all along parked opposed the ATM.
Also in Ms Kyakuhaire’s wallet was her student ID and photocopies of academic documents.
A detective says such cases are more rampant during the Christmas season and when children are returning to school.
Mr Luke Owoyesigyire, the Kampala Metropolitan police spokesperson, said cases of people being conned outside banks were on the rise even though he could not confirm the statistics released by the detective at Kampala Metropolitan police headquarters.
“I don’t have statistics for the previous years but I can tell we have recorded 77 cases from January to April at Central Police Station (CPS) only. We don’t know what other stations like Katwe, Old Kampala and Wandegeya have so far recorded,” Mr Owoyesigyire said.
He says conmen use tricks like having money on mobile money or present items to sell like a refrigerator or create stories of someone who has valuables being sold cheaply.
“Sometimes people are duped with stories such as someone had got an urgent problem and is selling his car or motorcycle cheaply. He may tell you that a car of Shs30m is being sold at Shs5m because someone wants money to save himself from jail. For a person who has just withdrawn money, the decision to buy such a car is easy,” Mr Owoyesigyire explained.