In Rwanda, con men have not been as ruthless as their counterparts in neighbouring countries. But that is changing as con artists devise sophisticated ways of fleecing gullible Rwandans.
In Rwanda, con men have not been as ruthless as their counterparts in neighbouring countries. But that is changing as con artists devise sophisticated ways of fleecing gullible Rwandans.
Peter (not real name), a city businessman, fell victim to a con artist and up to now, he still can’t believe that he was conned.
"I always thought that people who are conned are naïve and stupid but that wasn’t until the day I became a victim. I realised it can happen to anyone as long as you don’t pay attention to detail,” Peter says.
Peter was duped by a one Frank (not real name) who promised to sell him a Toyota Rav 4, 2012 model at a giveaway price of Rwf 3million.
"Frank came to me with documents that showed he was the owner of the car and told me he wanted to sell it off. At the time, I was looking for a car to buy for my wife. Frank was introduced to me by someone that I knew; I agreed to buy the car although he told me to give him a week to take it to the garage for maintenance.”
That was fine with Peter until Frank told him that he wanted an advance to clear the car that was stuck at a warehouse. Since Peter had known him through a friend, he paid him 2million with promises to bring him the car in a week’s time. But that is the last he saw or heard from Frank.
"I waited and after one week, Frank was nowhere to be seen. When I confronted the ‘friend’ who had introduced me to him, he vehemently denied and since there was no written document, I had no case and I lost both the car and my money,” says the businessman.
Peter’s story is one of the many other stories of people who have been conned of their hard earned money. It is a trend that is growing as con men are consistently coming up with new tricks.
Impersonation
Impersonating people is a common trick that is used by con men and fresh graduates are now the latest targets.
Zebron was a fresh university graduate when he encountered Karim (not real name) at an end of year party of one of the top banks in town. Zebron had been invited by a friend but somehow he found himself talking to a stranger.
"He was smart, looked sharp and he seemed to know people around. He started by asking me what I do. I told him I was a fresh graduate looking for a job. I added that I studied finance and administration, to which, he immediately said that the bank was currently looking for someone in their finance department but they hadn’t released a vacancy announcement yet. He also told me that he chaired the recruiting committee.
"I couldn’t believe my luck. He told me not to mention it to anyone since it was being kept under the wraps. I got excited and didn’t even question why he was giving me inside information. He gave me his number and asked me to meet him the next day.”
When they met the next day, Karim told him that he had talked to his other colleagues and they were willing to give him the job but he had to give them something in return.
"He told me that the job paid Rwf 850,000 and the committee wanted Rwf 1m to share amongst themselves for me to get the job. I was broke but again I was desperate to get a job. I immediately contacted a money lender who I told I would pay in two months with interest. As for security, I gave him a land title for a piece of land that my mother had left for me.”
After securing the money, Zebron was asked to carry his CV, copies of identity card, university documents and two passport photos. Karim helped him pimp his CV to the bank’s standards and assured him that all was well.
"After a cup of tea, which I paid for and giving him the money and documents, that’s the last time I heard from him. After several attempts to call him in vain, I went to the bank’s headquarters to inquire and they assured me that they had no one in the human resources department with such a name. They mounted a search within all the other departments going by the description I gave them, but we couldn’t find Karim,” says Zebron.
It is at that point that Zebron realised he had been conned and he had to deal with the money lender. It is not only in banks where people impersonate managers. There have been cases of people who impersonate journalists in order to get money from some members of the public.
According to various sources, there are people who have been pretending to be members of the media in order to gain favours. Such favours include, access to high level conferences, contribution towards a wedding and threatening to publish a damning story if they are not paid off.
Online dating
Rose Mary (not real name) started online dating last year after losing her husband five years ago. Rose Mary is a 53-year-old business woman who decided to look for love online because all the other men she met were interested more in her money than her as a person.
However, she has since lost hope in online dating because the guys she meets online are also interested in her money. "There are a few guys who claimed that they had big problems and needed money within just a week of meeting online. Most of these guys were around the East African region,” she says.
Her experience didn’t come easily. In the early days, Rose Mary fell for one of the guys who she says was charming and good looking.
"I met a guy online and fell for him. It took him months to make up a story to convince me that he was an ideal gentleman and eventually I gave in. I went to visit him and it was one of the best moments of my life. He showed me his house (and I was impressed) and also told me the kind of businesses he was engaged in. By the time I came back, I was fully convinced he was the one and I couldn’t wait to see him again.”
After two weeks, the man called to tell her that his business had crumbled due to a fire outbreak and he was left with nothing.
"He called to say there was a fire outbreak in a market where most of his businesses were located. I asked if I could go and be with him but he said he’d try to handle it. We continued to communicate daily where he gave me various updates about investigations into the fire and how his insurance was planning to handle the situation.”
After more than two weeks, the guy was ready to play his con game.
"He called one early morning and told me how he had been fighting with the bank because he owed them money but he couldn’t pay since his business was down and the insurance company was taking too long to compensate him. His worry was that the bank was threatening to evict him from his house. I asked him how much he owed the bank, he first hesitated to tell me but when I pressed him for details, he told me it was $20,000 (Rwf 14m). I immediately gathered some money and even processed a bank loan. I sent him the money but that was the last time I heard from him.”
Rose Mary says that she went to look for him at the place where he had taken her only to find that the place was rented out to different people, especially those who don’t want to stay in hotels or lodges. It is a place for people who want privacy. From there, she had nowhere to turn but to count her loses and move on.
The above are among a few of the many tricks that con men use. With advancements in technology, hardworking and hard thinking people have benefitted but also, those who plan to steal have benefitted from these advancements. People have received short messages, calls, emails and even letters from unknown people who claim that they need their help to transfer large sums of money, or that they are winners in some promotion.
The main issue here is; why would someone spend long hours thinking of how to con someone yet they could have used that time to do something constructive? But again, how do people get into such situations up to the point where they are fleeced of their valuables? Is it ignorance or have con men become too smart?
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What does Police say?
We have those cases but it’s not a big threat to national security. There are cases where a person connives to sell fake merchandise to another person but through a middleman or a partner. Cases are there but we are sensitising the public to be vigilant and report cases they suspect to be con games. We have arrested some people before in connection to conning people but we have also foiled some con games. There are people who report to us immediately they suspect that they are being conned, when we start investigations, the con men disappear and the con is foiled but it’s not a big threat to our security.
Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), Celestin Twahirwa
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VOX POP: What con men tricks have you heard of?
Eric Oghedo
I haven’t come across any con men in Rwanda but in Nigeria, there are some pretty smart ones. There’s a smart con known as "the triangle”. There are three parties involved, the buyer, the seller and the middleman.
The buyer is usually a foreigner who is highly interested in a commodity that is sold by the seller through a middleman. In this case, it’s the seller who is being conned by the buyer and the middleman, who in most cases, is someone known to you.
The middleman introduces you to the buyer, then you give an order to deliver within a short period of time, the middleman will suggest someone who has what the buyer wants. Usually the commodity that you are to buy will be bought by the foreigner as high as more than five times the price of purchase. Here the seller is sure of quick profit and rushes to buy the goods.
The goods are mostly products that are valueless but the buyer makes it look very valuable. So you get a lot of money to purchase the goods from the fourth guy who is also part of the con, once you have purchased the goods, that’s where they start disappearing one by one and finally they can’t be reached. You then realise that you have been conned after what you have in your possession is worthless.
Remy Kaliza
I have heard of email cons and I think people have to be careful because cyber criminals are growing by the day. Someone sends you an email claiming they are the heir of a fortune. They will say they are unwell and want to entrust their money to you before they die. They will ask for your bank account details and, as soon as you comply, your money will be withdrawn.
In case you do not have a bank account, they will instruct you to open one and deposit a certain amount of money before they can send the cash fortune to you. Do not disclose your bank account details, especially the PIN number, to anyone.
Peter Musafiri
People have a habit of buying phones off the street and this is where they get conned. A stranger will try to sell you a sleek phone on the streets. Oddly, he or she will not want to show you the phone in its entirety. They will also offer the phone at a ridiculously low price. Should you fall for it, you will part with your hard-earned money only to be disappointed after the seller has gone. The phone will almost always be bogus. Matters could get even worse; if the phone is actually real, you could be tracked by an ongoing police investigation in a case where the phone was stolen or maybe involved in a robbery. In that case, it will be difficult to justify possession of stolen property.