Three airtime vendors, who are related, appeared before a Mutare magistrate on Friday after allegedly stealing US$54,863 through an EcoCash airtime transfer scam.
Marvelous Nyamutamba (41), Mitchelle Nyamutamba (28), and Panashe Muhonde (29) are accused of exploiting a system glitch that allowed them to transfer airtime without any deductions from their own accounts. Instead, each transfer credited the intended recipient, effectively duplicating the funds.
According to State prosecutor Chris Manyuku, the alleged theft occurred between January and April 2025, after Marvelous Nyamutamba discovered the flaw and shared it with the others. The money was reportedly stolen from Econet Wireless (Pvt) Ltd.
The trio has been charged with theft under Section 113(1) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act (Chapter 9:23). Said Manyuku:
During these periods, the three accused made different transactions in the form of airtime, which resulted in Econet Wireless (Pvt) Ltd Zimbabwe losing US$54 863.
Marvelous Nyamutamba used her line to transact 312 ecocash airtime transactions amounting to US$39 595, while Mitchelle Nyamutamba used her line to transact 260 airtime purchases totaling US$14 282. Muhonde used his line to transact US$986 worth of airtime.
The alleged fraud came to light during a routine review of airtime purchases on the EcoCash platform. The discovery led to the blocking of the suspect’s line and a police report, resulting in the trio’s arrest.
They were held in remand prison over the weekend and granted US$150 bail each on Wednesday last week.
As part of their bail conditions, they must reside at their given addresses and avoid any contact with witnesses.
The case is set to continue on May 28.
More: The Manica Post
How do you get arrested for a glitch on the system? Glitch suggests that the programmers at ecocash missed a gap in their programming. If a user exploited this gap, how is that on them?
Hapana case apa.
Heads must roll Kuma programmer eku ecocash.
Simple maths.
Saka uri kuti munhu aka siya door rakavhurika pakapinda munhu achiba then mbavha inenge isina mhosva here?
Yes ma programmer didn’t do their job but kuba kuba, even if it was made easier for them to do so.
You make sense. But Econet also makes very little effort or make it hard for you to recover your money when the same system glitches occur against the clients’ favour. For example, when it double deducts money from Ecocash or when data or airtime vanishes.
I disagree. Nowadays such issues are solved in minutes – don’t try and call them. Somply use their Ecocash helplines on WhatsApp. Thank me later. It is much harder to recover funds from the formal banking system than it is for Ecocash.
I like your reasoning here 🤣🤣🤣. Mbavha imbavha
No, i think you got this wrong here, these guys sell airtime, where they supposed to stop selling airtime when their accounts weren’t debited? They just need a good lawyer, for all they know the figures could have been mixed up as well
What an important work up call ku Econet. This is just but a tip of iceberg that explains systemic weaknesses.when I grow up I want to be a Hacker.
They are guilty, doing one or two transaction is accidental. More than three is intentional hence illegal. Ukanonga phone and don’t report, CID vanongoti phone that went missing was found with you.
I once experienced 1 of these glitches I bought electricity with out my balance being deducted. They just put an overdraft balance on my account when they realised, and these where small amounts. But these guys started exploiting it like made hence they new they where stilling. It’s not like they where using a vpn to get free data, it was money they where taking.