May I first of all bid you a warm welcome to this edition of the Consumer Education Bulletin. I would also like to thank you kindly for your feedback and
comments sent to us via our feedback channels.
We value your comments and I want to assure you that we make every effort to ensure that we attend to your concerns or address issues that pertain to the way we regulate and supervise the financial industry.
In this edition, I would like to address a worrying trend that seems to be grow-ing by the day that robs innocent people of their hard-earned money.
In the months preceding the publication of this edition of the quarterly Consum-er Education Bulletin, NAMFISA has been inundated with concerns by members of the public who were unknowingly cheated out of their money.
It is common knowledge that Namibia has a high percentage of unemployed people. These people will do anything to land a job that will give them a secure income which they can feed their families and pay for basic necessities with.
In their desperation, unfortunately, they fall prey to unscrupulous people who devise means to make money out of already desperate people.
The latest trick in their book is to advertise job opportunities for clerks, ac-countants, drivers and other clerical positions. Applicants are then required to pay a deposit into a bank account before they are offered the job. The deposit is apparently to ensure that the applicants are registered with NAMFISA to secure them the job.
Many young Namibians have already lost their money in this way and in most cases this money was borrowed from friends and family with the expectation that they will be able to pay back those loans once they are employed.
Unfortunately, the bank accounts into which the money is deposited are closed almost instantly and the people purportedly offering the jobs are nowhere to be found – their mobile numbers are either off or go unanswered.
Money is lost in the process and the job offers ultimately never materialise because it is simply a scam meant to defraud unsuspecting Namibians.
I have therefore found it prudent to address this issue and to caution Namibians to be wary of people masquerading as potential employers while requesting payment for their services. Particularly, one is not required to have a certificate from NAMFISA to work in government, state-owned entity or private business. This applies especially to drivers, accountants and cleaners, which are the job categories that the scammers consistently target.
It is therefore my plea that whoever encounters such people must report them to the police as soon as possible for swift action to be taken.
Phillip Shiimi
It all comes down to this: if your subconscious “financial blueprint” is not set for success, nothing you learn, nothing you know, and noth-ing you do will make much of a dif-ference.
– T. Harv Eker