Man Arrested For Editing Ecocash Confirmation Message
A Rusape man allegedly defrauded a tuckshop of groceries worth $1 900 through editing an EcoCash transaction confirmation message.
Tafadzwa Tumba (22) of Muziti Village under Chief Makoni’s area was not asked to plead when he appeared before Rusape magistrate, Ms Rutendo Machingura.
He was remanded out of custody to June 18 on $300 bail.
Prosecuting, Mr Tawanda Munjanja said Tumba defrauded Ms Praise Mbewe, a shop assistant at Nyakufu tuckshop in Tsanzaguru.
The crime was only discovered when Mbewe and her employer were taking stock of the day’s sales.
“On May 13 around 10 am, Tumba approached Ms Mbewe and bought groceries worth $1 900. He said he would pay via EcoCash.
“However, Tumba simply edited an EcoCash text message to read as if he had paid $1 900 to Nyakufu tuckshop. He went on to show it to Ms Mbewe, who then recorded the fake confirmation,” said Mr Munjanja.
The offence was discovered by Lawrence Nyakufu on the same day around 6pm when he was checking the payments recorded against the Ecocash payments received.
He noted that the payment code used by the accused person was fake.
A police report was made, thereby leading to Tumba’s arrest.
Nothing was recovered.
