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The Gauteng Office of Consumer Affairs (Goca) has urged the youth to be vigilant against mobile phone scamming in the consumer market.
Goca said fraudsters and scammers are increasingly preying on unsuspecting consumers and swindling them out of their airtime and money.
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Morapedi Machakela, Acting Director: Education, Awareness and Stakeholder Relations, said their awareness campaign has shed light on mobile phone scamming.
“During our awareness campaigns, consumers reported that they received phone calls from people who pretended to be the network service providers and told them that they have won cellphones. Consumers were then expected to recharge airtime and send it to these criminals before receiving the cellphones.
“Unfortunately, the unsuspecting victims then openly purchased the airtime and sent it to the criminals, but never received the cellphones,” Machakela said.
Machakela further urged the youth to be vigilant and never trust anyone who calls them pretending to be from the network company.
“Network service providers do not contact people and ask for airtime, their personal and security details.”
Below are consumer tips from Gocha
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