Midrand police officers are warning residents to be careful of SMS scams and discount scams in shopping centres.
Spokesperson for Midrand Police Station, Constable Matome Tlamela said, “We are recently receiving a high volume of cases where the victims are allegedly promised discounts and bargains by people pretending to be the sales personnel in shops.
“The perpetrators allegedly demand that the shopper must hand in their handbags and cellphones to them for security reasons and somehow end up disappearing with the shoppers’ items.”
According to Tlamela, some people have reported to police that they received phone calls or SMSes that they had won a free prize, but this is a scam.
Midrand police provided the following tips:
- Do no let anyone rush you into making a purchase
- Do not leave a handbag with a security person, allegedly, for security reasons
- If someone pushes you to make a purchase and it sounds too good to be true, report the matter to the store manager
- Do not respond with your personal details to competition calls or SMSes.
- If you entered the contest and it is legitimate, you are not required to buy anything or pay any money to claim your prize. You don’t need to pay any processing fee or handling charges or to provide your bank account numbers for any reason.
Details: Midrand Police Station 011 347 1600.
