Developing an intelligent system for investigating card cloning fraud in Zimbabwe.

Author

Mudzingadutu, Blessing

Title

Developing an intelligent system for investigating card cloning fraud in Zimbabwe.

Abstract

The study aims to Develop an intelligent system that can be used by investigators in the investigation of Card cloning Fraud. Business community and individuals continue to lose their valuable property through criminals who specialise in cloning debit card. The Bankers Association of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Republic Police continue to look for effective ways of fighting Card cloning fraud. Criminals are taking advantage of technological advancement and manipulate the payment systems available in the country. They are skimming the debit cards to steal information which they will then use for criminal purposes. In an effort to fight Card cloning Fraud, the ZRP adopted several crime prevention initiatives such as use of informers and contacts, target hardening, profiling of known criminals and linkage analysis but the detection rate is very low. Linkage analysis is one of the pillars of intelligence led policing which can be used to develop an intelligent system for investigating card cloning fraud. It emphasis on a pro-active approach in fighting crime through gathering, recording and examination of different crime scenes in order to identify crimes scenes with identical modus operandi. Linkage analysis can be used on different crimes like murder, unlawful entry and theft among others. In this study linkage analysis was examined to determine its impact on Card cloning fraud. Card Cloning is a crime that is known in other countries as a type of credit card fraud where a criminal copies a legitimate card in order to steal it and is also known as Card skimming. In Zimbabwe it is defined under section 167 of the criminal law codification and reform act Chapter 9:23. Linkage analysis has been used to link crimes of card cloning for quite some time by the Zimbabwe Republic police but no known recorded success in its use is in place unlike other crime like murder and robbery. It is against this background that the researcher sought to develop an intelligent system for investigating card cloning fraud. A mixed positivist philosophy has been used in this study. A descriptive survey was used as an appropriate research design. A stratified random and judgmental sampling methods were used in this study. The sample comprised of 80 participants extracted from a research population of 200 detectives stationed at Commercial Crime Division (CCD) headquarters in Harare. Questionnaires and interviews were used to collect primary data from the selected sample. Secondary data was collected from crime registers of the Commercial Crime Division. Collected data was analysed using statistical package for social science research (SPSS) software Version 27. It was presented in the form of pie charts, graphs and tables. The study highlighted that linkage analysis assist investigators with possible suspects linked through behaviour patterns, location of suspect, modus operandi, targeted victims and property. Geographical, intelligence and victim profiling are moderately used in the investigation of card cloning cases. The use of linkage analysis as a tool in the investigation of Card cloning cases in the ZRP is not very effective due to constraints such as lack of resources, lack of knowledge, incompetence on part of the detectives to conduct the analysis. In order to realize maximum fruits on linkage analysis, it is recommended that the ZRP be equipped with resources such as computers for storing, processing, analysis criminal information, internet infrastructure to enable detectives to do research on how other countries are doing it and invest in training.

Date

November 2024

Publisher

BUSE

Keywords

Linkage

Analysis

Detection

Cloning

Supervisor

Dr. Mazhambe