Sassa warns social grant recipients against new gold card scam

The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has warned the public about a scam in which fraudsters are deceiving social grant recipients to change their Sassa cards.

Sassa scam: What to know

‘New cards’

Sassa said fraudsters, who claim to work for the agency, were advising social grant beneficiaries to open an account with an unknown bank.

The spokesperson for Sassa in Mpumalanga, Senzeni Ngubeni, said the fraudsters were instilling fear in the public that their Sassa gold cards would not have money by the end of June 2022 if they did not apply for the new cards.

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Ngubeni said this was not true as the cards remained functional.

“Sassa would like to assure all social grant beneficiaries that the Sassa card will continue to work until Sassa officially communicates otherwise.

“Beneficiaries can use their Sassa gold card to withdraw their grant in retail outlets such as: Pick & Pay, Checkers, Shoprite, Boxer or USave and all bank ATMs in South Africa,” Ngubeni said in a statement.

Report fraud cases

If there were any changes to the grant payments, Sassa said it would inform beneficiaries through all available channels and also through stakeholder engagements.

Social grant beneficiaries were urged to report these fraudsters to the nearest police station.

“For more information contact our customer help desk at (013) 754 – 9439/9428 or toll-free number: 0800 60 10 11 from 08:00 – 16:00 during weekdays Monday – Friday.”

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