NELSPRUIT – The provincial police commissioner Lt Gen Thulani Ntobela is warning people of the province not to fall prey to the ongoing scams which are conning unsuspecting victims into parting with their money.
In the first method the scam operators use a victim’s cellphone number and fraudulently secure a SIM swap through their agents, who are believed to be employed at cellphone outlets. After the swap has been processed, the victim’s original card will stop working and in the meantime the scammers will use the victim’s number to contact his/her relatives or closest people and con them into depositing money into a certain account or use money market at certain retail stores.
They will tell the family that the victim is stranded at an isolated area where there is no network and the owner has given them his/her cellphone to contact the family for help.
They will give a bank account number which will be of another unsuspecting person – who will not be aware that his/her bank account is used by crooks as they will tell that person that their bank account is in arrears and they cannot use it.
The second scam is when the victim receives an SMS informing him that his SIM card has won a certain amount of cash. He is then directed to call a certain number provided in the message. When He contacts that number, he is told to buy airtime worth a certain amount and forward the voucher number to that person for communication purposes.
There are extreme cases in which victims have deposited a sum of R5 000 for processing the deposit of the winnings into his bank account. In the last scam, victims receive a call from an unknown person telling them about their family member who has been arrested.
The caller then informs them that he has secured bail for that person, so they need to deposit money at money market of a certain retail store so that he can facilitate the release.
Ntobela says that it is imperative for the public to be vigilant at all times as it is the responsibility of individuals to safeguard their money.
“I therefore take this opportunity to warn people not to divulge their bank accounts
to anyone, especially over the phone.
“Your bank account should be private and you must never give it to strangers promising you money, to avoid being conned.”
