RESIDENTS are being warned to not fall victim to a scam artist who is offering employment at Durban Central SAPS at a price.
This comes after a woman working at a church in Durban received a call last Thursday from a man claiming that Nonhlanhla Precious Dlamini had listed the church as a reference on her application for a job at Durban Central SAPS.
The woman told the caller she was not aware of anyone by that name, and the man, who identified himself over the phone as Capt Ngidi from Durban Central, said there were vacancies open for next year and asked if she could give his number to any people in the congregation who had matriculated and were looking for employment.
Speaking to Berea Mail, the woman, who asked not to be named, said: “I took down his number and said I would do so. One of the people who was keen to take up this offer was my sister, so I thought I better look into it a bit more.”
The woman contacted ‘Capt Ngidi’ on her sister’s behalf, and he asked for R2 500 upfront to secure the position for her sister. Making up a story, she said she did not have the money as she was unemployed, and he then asked for R1 000. Once again when she said she didn’t have that money, he advised her to borrow money. He said he could meet her the same day, and she agreed to call him back.
“We decided to play detective as this didn’t sound right. I called him back later and he said he was in a meeting and told me to call him back in five minutes. When I called again, he asked me to send him my ID number so he could check me out on the system to verify if I had completed matric. I gave him the ID number of a family member whom I know doesn’t have a matric, to see if he was actually going to check,” she said.
However, the man confirmed that her ID number checked out, and advised her to go to Spar and send the money, but instructed her to put his number as the sender and hers as the receiver, and then told her to meet him in town with her ID and Grade 12 certificate. “I didn’t want to meet up with him as I knew something was wrong, so each time he called to see where I was, I said I was in a queue at Spar. When I asked where I was to meet him, he told me to go to the Durban Central station and to ask for a Mr Gumede who would take me to where he was on the 6th floor, and if anyone asked me any questions, I was to say I had been interviewed at Greyville Hall on 27 July 2018 for a position and the reference was KZN2201/2018,” she said.
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Acting on her suspicions, the woman then called a police hotline and got through to someone who gave her what he said was the number for the Hawks, but it turned out to be invalid. She then went online and found a number for province, who gave her the number for a Mr Shezi from the Hawks, who said he would go see her to take a statement. He also took Capt Ngidi’s number down. Shezi hasn’t been in contact since.
While Berea Mail was interviewing the woman on Friday morning, she phoned Ngidi who answered the call and said he would call back. He did so, and she informed him she wasn’t interested in the job anymore, hoping this would stop him from contacting her further.
“I want to warn the community of this scam. He might be a policeman, he might not be, but it is sad he is taking advantage of unemployed people who are desperate for work,” she said.
Berea Mail contacted Const Zanele Khomo from Durban Central Police to find out if there was an officer by that name at the station, and to inform her of the probable scam.
Responding to the news, Const Khomo said: “I would advise the victim to open a case and in a statement she must mention all that conspired. The case will be investigated and the number for the Captain Ngidi, whom we have no record of working at Durban Central, will be traced. Furthermore I will report this incident to the cluster commander and the station commander for an internal investigation.”
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