My father used to own a small business somewhere in Manicaland and back then when Zimbabwe was still Zimbabwe he would go to order new stock in Mbare and Mupedzanhamo. Some areas were designated as bulk selling points where people who wanted large quantities of products would buy at a discount. These areas were prone to fraudsters and scammers as well as outright criminals who would target people with large sums of money.
He told me of a story where his friend wanted to buy 10 pairs of trousers from a certain dealer, he was shown a sample of nice trousers which was going at a discount price. He was immediately enticed by the price and demand the young man to pack 10 pairs of trousers for him. But the young man didn’t actually pack 10 pairs of trousers rather he packed 10 pairs of similar shorts. You can imagine his shock when he got home.
Another popular scam he told me about was that of drooping wallets, a person would drop a wallet ahead of you full of what looks like cash. The colleague will be walking by your side and would quickly pick up the wallet. Then they will tell you that today is our lucky day since we picked this wallet, lets go somewhere and share the money. If you are not smart enough to go with that person to a secluded place, when you get to the spot there will be his or her colleagues ready to pounce on you. They will take everything from you including your clothes.
The scams went on for a while until people wise up to the tricks and people who perform such would sometimes be delivered to mob justices as the previous victims vent their anger at the criminals. So they realize that now everyone knows the tricky and change to new sophisticated systems particularly the one on the internet and social media. The MLM where a person joins for a price and would make money by inviting his or her friends started to pop up.
Gospel entrepreneurship is now the new thing, where prophets, pastors, apostles sell merchandise at an inflated price. The so-called prayer session and one on one are the new wallet-dropping schemes where congregants are promised blessings in exchange for their hard-earned money. But just like any scam people are beginning to wake up and realize that they are being scammed and honestly if you fall for it, surely you deserved to be scammed.
Lily Java is the latest victim to receive mob justice after she posted on her social media that she and her husband Panganai are hosting a virtual one-on-one session at a $210 price tag. But the Zimbabweans are not having any of that, they immediately camped in the comments section making their opinions heard LOUD AND CLEAR.
The era of Chadonha in the church might be coming to an end.
