Con artist targets Northglen News

THE woman who scams unsuspecting Durban North residents under the ruse that her car had run out of petrol, minutes ago, tried to pull the same stunt on Northglen News reporter, Rianette Cluley at the Caltex Northlands Service Station in Mackeurtan Avenue.

She targeted not only the reporter but also a number of unsuspecting shoppers and business owners in the vicinity of the petrol station. She told the reporter she had just put R50 petrol in her car, but said she only noticed afterwards that she had left her purse at home.

Cluley said she “felt sorry” for the woman and considered parting with the R50 that the woman, who was wearing Sketches takkies and dangling car keys in hand, had asked for. “I truly believed her. But it took just seconds for me to remember that we had run a story in April where police warned of this woman and her modus operandi.”

Cluley said she told the woman that she did not have R50 but no sooner had she taken a few steps away that another woman came running to her saying she had also heard about the “car running out of petrol scam”. She warned her to be aware of the woman.

In April a local woman reported she was scammed of R40 when a woman approached her at her house for petrol money. It is believed the scamster, driving a white Golf, went to the woman’s house saying she felt embarrassed to ask for money, but needed it as her car ran out of petrol. Cluley said she also saw a white Golf this morning.

“I told her to ask the petrol station if one of the petrol attendants could take a drive with her to her home to fetch her wallet. But the woman just walked across the road towards the station asking other shoppers and pedestrians for help,” Cluley said.

A Caltex Northlands spokesperson confirmed that there wasn’t a customer at the station who couldn’t pay for petrol because she left her purse at home.