A number of people in the Greater Kabale district are crying foul after losing millions of shillings to online fraudsters masquerading as associates to Bridge Water Stocks, a United States-based virtual company dealing in crypto currencies.
According to victims, the scammers allegedly led by one Brian Musheruzi, together with his relatives Alex Mwesigye alias Kiyanga, and Charles Kamwesiga all residents of Kabale district, targeted business people, civil servants, police officers, and students, whom they promised huge daily interests on their investments in the Bridge Water Company.
The online Business later closed with unclear reasons in November, and the clients were reportedly notified that the website had been hacked which implied that there was no means of retrieving their money. Since then the company owners have refused to respond to the victims’ calls.
Silver Muhangi who operates a phones and Accessories business at Skyline says that he came to know about Bridge water stocks after Alex Mwesigye alias Kiyanga encouraged him to join the online business which forced him to invest five million shillings where he would get a daily investment of 82000.
He added that to his surprise he found his account inactive and when he approached Kiyanga he started abusing him which prompted him to mobilize other colleagues in the business to report to area Resident District Commissioner-RDC. Muhangi said that he is now stuck because they are not getting any positive feedback from police about the matter.
Sharon Niwamanya a primary school teacher and Edita Atuheire Ahimbisibwe a bank agent within Kabale town said that they joined on in October last year. Niwamanya said she had deposited 8 million shillings and her sister had deposited 9 million shillings , while Atuheire said 50 million shillings out of the 78 million shillings she deposited was a loan from stanbic Bank.
They pleaded to authorities to help them to hunt for the fraudsters so they can return the money to them because they want to clear loans.
The Kabale Resident District Commissioner Godfrey Nyakahuma said that he recently received a group of ten businessmen and ladies who reported that they had lost a total of over 500 million shillings to the fraudsters. He added that the victims were many but a few had since reported because some of them are security officers, religious leaders and other people who fear putting their dignity at stake.
Nyakahuma added that they have now engaged police under Cyber Crime Unit to help in compiling all the evidence that will pin the suspects.
Recently, one of the local news agencies published a report that 1,500 Ugandans across the country had lost about Shs10b over the past three months to online fraudsters masquerading as associates to Bridge Water Stocks.
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