Of course it came as a shock. He didn’t know he had been reduced to beggary, He didn’t realise that all my money had been taken until he went to the bank ATM to withdraw some cash and check his account.
You can imagine my horror when he stood in front of the machine and saw it swallow his card. At first he couldn’t believe what he saw on the ATM screen. All my money had gone. His savings, his salary cheque, everything.
He went inside and started to ask questions. Where was his money? Who had withdrawn it? When would it be replaced?
He had to sit down when he heard the reaction from the bank. You know something, you would have thought the fact his money had been taken was his fault.
He was, he was told, a victim of ‘skimming’. This is what happens when someone accuses your pin number.
He shouldn’t have let anyone look at it he was told. But he didn’t, he remonstrated. Why would he, why would anyone, show their pin number to someone else?
He left the bank penniless and in abject despair. How would he eat, pay his rent, look after his family? And then his repair turned to outrage and anger.
He decided that he would need to see the manager of the branch. Eventually he was given an appointment, not with the boss, but with some junior lackey.
He was expecting to be treated like a criminal and not a victim because this was how his friends who had been in a similar predicament had been treated.
To his surprise the bank official was polite and showed respect. But was this because he had told him where he worked, that he was a journalist and had connections in Dar es Salaam?
Who knows? Anyway he had to tell you that this man bent over backwards to be of assistance.
He told him that he had to inform the police of the fraud and suggested he writes them a letter. This, he said, would help him get another bank card.
But what is the point of having a replacement card when there is no money in his account to withdraw?
The bank official was sympathetic. He told him not to worry, he said, the bank will mount an investigation.
He nodded. That’s good he thought, but what use is an investigation without any outcome? There are, as you well know, thousands of investigations going on in this country, which yield no positive results.
“Don’t worry, sir, he said. You will get your money back”, he told my friend.
When, he asked? After we have conducted our investigation.
And when will that be? he sighed, expecting him to name some date in the next decade.
In two weeks, he said. He paused. At the most.
He left the bank, still a pauper, but a happier man. He even had a new ATM in his paw.
Of course, he couldn’t use it because there was nothing inside that strong room for him to draw out.
As he walked through town, he studied the beggars in the gutter. Normally they are invisible. He averts his eyes. But today was different.
You know that man with no legs who uses a homemade skateboard contraption to paddle along the pavements in search of custom, could he become him?
He started to make enquiries, he googled ‘skimming’. And he found that he certainly was not alone.
A gang of Bulgarians and been convicted of the offence six years ago. And officials at the Bank of Tanzania had drawn attention to the fraud not once but a number of times.
So why weren’t we customers warned? Why weren’t we told that our cards were not secure? He checked back with his bank and they insisted they had sent out a directive alerting their customers two years ago. But he did not get that information and he doubts that he was the only one who was overlooked.
What does all this add up to? Well, I have to tell you that there is much more to this story that just a retelling of the financial nightmare of an ordinary man in the street.
His story is everyman’s story, certainly anyone who has a bank account. The truth is if we cannot trust the banks, then we are doomed.
And there are questions to be answered. For instance, why are the police not more successful in bringing prosecutions and the courts in securing convictions if this fraud is, as I am told, as prevalent as it is?
Let’s imagine he hadn’t been cheated by some unknown fraudster who had access to the details of his card, supposedly secure details at that? Let’s imagine that he had been mugged while standing at the ATM.
What would have happened then? Would the police have responded? Probably not, but I do know from experience, that the public, my fellow wanawake would have come to his aid. Indeed not only would they have retrieved his money from his assailant, they would most likely have followed up his arrest by enthusiastically placing a rubber tyre around his neck and executing him.
Brutal yes, but highly effective. The message is simple: never rob a poor man. As a result, muggers do not operate freely in our city. And yet fraudsters do.
Now he is not calling for the death penalty for skimming, but he would like, and he would imagine many of his fellow victims would agree with him, this crime to be taken seriously.
He is not advocating this just because he was (temporarily, he hopes) a reduced to the very dregs of society, that of the penniless beggar. He is advocating it because without trust in our banking system, the country would soon be reduced to a state of chaos.
We, poor fools that we are, seem to have a blind trust in the banking system. Would you hand your money to a thief? Would you entrust your life savings to someone you could not trust?
Well, I am afraid to say, this is exactly what you are doing when you commit your salary to a bank.
What’s the answer? If I had my way, I would keep my money under my mattress and trust to the bloody appetite of the mob to maintain its safety and my prosperity.
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