The Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) has warned the public to be vigilant against digital deception and financial scams, saying scammers are using deep fakes, fake endorsements and sophisticated imitations of legitimate companies to deceive investors.
The warning was made by FSRA Chief Executive Officer Ncamiso Ntshalintshali during the IOSCO World Investor Week Youth Skit Competition Winners Award Ceremony held on Monday. The ceremony honoured the top three winners of a national competition that attracted 52 youth groups.
Ntshalintshali said the World Investor Week is a global initiative led by the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), of which Eswatini is a member, aimed at raising awareness on investment and investing matters.
“As a regulator of capital markets in Eswatini, we realise that there is a lot of work that we need to do to raise awareness as far as the products and the services that are offered by our regulated entities,” he said.
He said many people do not fully understand where they are deploying their hard-earned savings, which has become a major objective for the Authority.
“This year we decided on a theme of digital deception and financial scams and we thought the best way to transport our messaging would be to engage you, the youth of the kingdom,” he told the winners.
He said young people have found their space on TikTok and other platforms and those platforms assist the Authority to reach areas it would ordinarily not reach.
“You seem to have found your space on TikTok and other platforms and those messaging platforms assist us as an authority to reach areas that we ordinarily will not,” he said.
The CEO said the FSRA has also ramped up its public education drive, visiting Tinkhundla centres and large employers to warn citizens to be careful as they invest their savings.
“The whole intention is to say, be careful, be aware as you deploy your hard cash, your hard-earned savings and cash into the space,” he said.
He said the youth competition was designed to trigger thinking and creativity around financial scams that have affected the country.
“We thought the best group to do that would be the youth of the country to be creative in saying the same things that have not happened the right way in our space,” he said.
The CEO acknowledged that there have been cases where entities regulated by the FSRA have failed, with stories appearing in newspapers and on news bulletins.
“From time to time there will be certain stories that are coming out that entities that have been regulated by the FSRA are failing. And the best way for us to turn that tide is to flood the citizens and to ensure we are forcing the right message down their throats,” he said.
He warned that when people feel they have no other financial avenues, any scheme promising high returns can look and feel like the right thing, which scammers exploit.
He said some fraudulent schemes try to influence potential investors by falsely claiming they are linked to or endorsed by regulators.
“Some of them would also try and, not intimidate, but try to influence you into saying we are an entity that relates to the regulators,” he said.
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