The police in Carletonville warn that residents must refrain from paying money for cars online that they have not yet seen in real life.
Many residents are still falling prey to criminals scamming them out of large amounts of cash. In most of the cases, they see cars advertised at incredibly low prices on social media.
Once they enquire about the vehicle, the “seller” asks for a fee of a few thousand rand to secure the vehicle for them. The buyer is asked to pay this money into the seller’s bank account.
The seller then often goes quiet and the buyer realise that they have lost of their money to a scam. In some cases, the “seller”, however, asks for the whole purchase amount before the vehicle can be released. Only then do they disappear with the victim’s money.
One resident from the Carletonville area has lost R80 000 in this way.
“Never, ever, pay money for a vehicle that you have not seen with your own eyes,” advises a senior police officer.
He mentions that it is almost impossible to catch the criminals as they immediately withdraw the money and pay it over into other bank accounts and from there into even more bank accounts, none of which belongs to them.
The police also warns that anyone who lets another person use the first person’s bank account to have money paid into it, and then allows the other person to withdraw the money or just pays it over to them again, usually for a fee, is also guilty of fraud and can be prosecuted on this criminal offence.
People who do this are aiding the scammers.
