Durban North resident (88) robbed of R11 000
Con men posing as municipal workers scam elderly couple twice in a month.
A PAIR of brazen con men are believed to have robbed an elderly Durban North couple out of R10 000, days after they swindled them out of R1 000.
Last week the couple told the Northglen News of their unsettling encounter with the scamming duo, who came to their home. The two men, dressed in municipal worker’s clothes, tricked the couple into paying R1 000 for an electricity meter that would supposedly reduce their power consumption and save them money. They promised that someone would come and install the meter – to date no one has arrived.
On Friday, 10 October, the 88-year-old resident, who asked to remain anonymous, realized that R10 000 had been drawn from his credit card, and he suspects that the two con men are to blame.
“The bank told me that the people who drew the money had my pin, and I suspect that they had taken my details, along with my pin number from my wallet while I fetched the last statement I received from the municipality, which they asked for,” he said.
“I am old, and my mind is constantly getting worse, so I keep a piece of paper with pin number in my wallet. They had to have taken it then. How else would they have gotten my pin?” asked the frustrated resident. It is suspected that the fraudsters also cloned the unsuspecting resident’s card.
W/O Lutchman Singh, of the Greenwood Park SAPS, urged residents not to allow anyone into their yard. “Home owners can read out the figures to meter readers, and can even email the figures to the municipality,” he said.
Residents with information related to cases of fraud, corruption, maladministration and human rights violation in the municipality, are urged to report such cases to the City Integrity and Investigations Unit on 0800 202 020 toll free or on telephone 031 311 4002. Emailombuds@durban.gov.za
Your monthly electricity consumption figures can be emailed to MhlongB@elec.durban.gov.za or MbathaSind@elec.durban.gov.za.
