Police warn public of new government tender fraud scam

KwaZulu-Natal police have warned members of the community not to fall victim of government tender fraud scams.

Police say criminals are preying on people using the new modus operandi.

Spokesperson Colonel Nqobile Gwala said a trend has been detected where fraudsters would make contact with small business owners and mislead them into believing that they have been awarded tenders from government departments.

“Fraudulent letter heads and email addresses are used to request these businesses to supply a specific product or unusual product. To source the products, the small business owners would search on internet and identify a specific supplier who is also part of the scam.”

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“After paying an amount of cash to the alleged supplier to order the items, the victims realised that they were scammed,” Gwala said.

She adds the scam has been in existence since 2015, and slowed down by 2020 after previous warnings from police.

“Approximately, 68 cases were reported where the suspects have reverted to using the same modus operandi.”

In a case that was reported in 2016, in Richards Bay, a victim of the scam alleged that during September he received a quotation from one of the government departments.

In a letter, they requested 100 dyroc cylinder gases. After the money was deposited to the supplier, he realised that it was a scam.

Gwala said the scammers are targeting desperate small business owners who are still cementing their feet in their industries.

“We are appealing to community members to be aware of these ongoing scams and verify with the relevant governments department if they receive such requests,” Gwala added.

Earlier this month, police also warned South Africans of a scam that attempted to steal people’s WhatsApp accounts.

Social media users were warned not to share any personal information about themselves with anyone following the new modus operandi by criminals to impersonate users on Facebook or Meta-owned platforms.

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