CURSE OF CYBERCRIME

I read with great sympathy the story about the money stolen as a result of a cellphone theft (YOU, 7 March). In my experience the banks do not help this situation.

My husband and I are 77 and 75 respectively. We have cellphones to make calls and use WhatsApp and SMSes, we are not prepared to spend money on data to download apps. The last time we had to collect new cards from our bank, they insisted we download the banking app. We had to have a very unpleasant argument before one of the employees decided to find another way to activate our cards.

We are in no position to fight if someone tries to steal our phones. We prefer to do online banking on a computer in our house as we can control the likelihood of theft much better there.

POOR PENSIONER, EMAIL

I appreciate your editorial and the article about cyberfraud. In my case money was stolen from my Visa card without the use of my pin number. On reporting it to the police they assured me that the bank would pay me back to avoid publicity, which they did.

Within minutes, before I had even reported it, my cash had been sent out of the country never to return. Multiple passwords are not the answer. You have to write them down otherwise you are lost forever in a sea of numbers. Ever since we stopped using cheques this new horror has come to haunt us. Maybe the hackers encouraged the authorities to stop using cheques, because they knew what would happen; money for Africa at the click of a button. If you look at what is happening in Switzerland, one of the most moneyconscious countries in the world, they are going back to using cash and now have SFR1000 notes. This allows them to buy houses and cars without all this password nonsense. All you need is a button on your back pocket.

STEVE COLEMAN, GABORONE