By A Correspondent- Fake bonds notes being traded on the foreign currency black market by fraudsters have flooded the streets of Harare, it has emerged.

The state media reports that fraudsters are reportedly duping unsuspecting people of thousands of US dollars every day around the Eastgate Mall area in central Harare.

The report reveals how the syndicate operate:

Rarely spending more than five minutes at a particular place, these alleged masterminds have managed to covertly conduct their activities and outpace many victims who come back looking for them.

… Even then this investigation also found out that the alleged fraudsters follow their victims to nearby supermarkets and offer to buy their groceries using point of sale machines.

In this way, they retain the fake currency and await their next victim.

The source of the fake bond notes remains a mystery but there are hints that it’s an underground operation being conducted in the avenues area involving both local and foreign nationals.

A law announced by the government early this year on illegal foreign currency trading appears to be losing in weeding out the illegal forex dealers whose numbers have ballooned over the last 2 months.

The fear now is that the fake currency rackets are triggering inflation and further weakening the bond note which is now trading at 1:9 on the parallel market.-StateMedia