THREE Caversham pensioners – Mary Johnston, Margaret and Donald Seymour – were scammed of R3 200 on 5 July by a man who claimed he was from the eThekwini Municipality electricity department.
The neatly-dressed Indian man said he was doing a survey and was offering new prepaid electricity meters to pensioners.
He said the cost of the meter and installation would be R3 000 and R200 for consultation.
After taking the pensioners’ information, the gentleman left and minutes later they received a call from a man named Marlon who said he was from the head-office.
“Everything seemed legit, the call from the head-office confirming our information made us believe the deal was real,” said Mrs Seymour.
The gentleman didn’t have a badge or any identification on him; when the residents asked to see his ID he made up an excuse that he had left it at work.
“All the signs of a scam were there, but we failed to see them, we should have stopped when he failed to produce identification,” said Mr Seymour.
Before paying the R3 200, the fake consultant brought a meter box and electricity card to show them what they were purchasing, then Mrs Seymour paid the gentleman in cash.
They got a receipt of payment and a reference number: M971 6894 9281.
He then walked down the road and was picked up by a white car and fled.
eThekwini Municipality’s Communications Head, Tozi Mthethwa, said, “The eThekwini Municipality has received numerous enquiries to validate suppliers and contractors calling on customers on the pretence of being eThekwini representatives. These suppliers are using the eThekwini name to gain entry into people’s homes claiming that they want to advise them on energy savings, meter installations and/or readings and to perform other alleged council-related work.”
The municipality urges customers to be vigilant to avoid falling prey to criminals posing as municipal employees. Any representative of the municipality will have an ID tag with a photograph, ID or employee number with the municipal logo.
