06 Apr 2025

The Financial Intelligence Agency (FIA) has cautioned banks to employ stringiest measures to detect and prevent fraudsters from using the country’s financial systems to clean their proceeds. 

The agency, in its recently released report on money laundering and terrorism financing trends analysis for the period between July and December 2023, implored banks to use stringiest measures such as Know Your Customer (KYC), enhanced due diligence and anti-money laundering regulations, to detect and prevent fraudsters. The FIA further calls for vigilance and collaboration, saying such are key components of an effective anti-money laundering strategy. 

From the period between July and December 2023, FIA says it analysed a total of 59 cases, which included among others identity theft, where fraudsters wrongfully obtains and uses another person’s personal information such as their name and credit card details for fraudulent purposes. FIA also noted cases of financial fraud, which entail falsifying documents to open fraudulent bank accounts, apply for loans, or make unauthorised purchases. 

Also, FIA states that Batswana continued to fall victims to phishing scams mostly through mobile money transactions, through which a total of 18 cases were reported during the period under review. In this type of fraud, scammers masquerade as agents or representatives from mobile companies in an attempt to defraud their victims. In most cases, scammers tell their victims that their mobile money accounts have randomly been selected as winners from an ongoing competition, which the victims will not have participated in. 

The scammers will then ask their victims to dial certain numbers in their mobile phones in order to access the money they have purportedly won, and in the end the victims realise that they were in fact being tricked to transfer their balances to phone numbers belonging to fraudsters. Hence FIA encourages individuals to be vigilant at all times and to keep their personal information secure. ENDS