Elderly woman scammed in Pretoria
This after the woman received an SMS last month notifying her that she had won 95k US dollars.
A cellphone phishing scam. Picture Neil McCartney
A 65-year-old woman from Wonderboompoort in Pretoria has been swindled out of her life savings.
Police spokesperson spokesperson Constable Mandlakayise Zwane said the woman received an SMS last month notifying her that she had won 95 000 US dollars, Rekord Moot reported.
“She received that SMS from this cellphone number +27 78 275 8668, stating that she has won 950 000 US Dollars and that the money had been safely kept for her by the United Nations Consular,” he said.
“The SMS further stated that their South African consultant ‘Miss Meagan Ramen’ could be contacted on Meaganramenz@consulbans.com”
Zwane said the woman replied to the email address immediately thereafter where she was instructed to make payments in order to release her bogus winnings.
“A total of R68 000 was paid into three different banks and accounts,” he said.
“The complainant was later asked to furnish her home address so that her bank card to gain access to her winnings could be delivered.”
Zwane said the courier arrived to deliver her bank card but didn’t come with a pin number.
“On 8 May 2017, the complainant received another email instructing her to make a further payment of R167 000, to get the pin and to be able to access her winnings from the Royal Bank of Scotland,” he said.
The victim asked her son to help her do more research on the company, only to discover that the entire thing was a scam.
A fraud charged was laid and investigations were underway, Zwane said.
“Wonderboompoort police would like to appeal to the community to be vigilant of such scams and report them to the nearest police station. “
Anyone with information on this matter could call Wonderboompoort police on 012-335-2818/9.
– Caxton News Service
For more news your way, follow The Citizen on Facebook and Twitter
