DURBAN North SAPS spokesman, Capt Raymond Deokaran said police are seeing an increase in online fraud cases. This comes after a tenth case of fraud was registered at the station in the last month.
In most of the cases registered at the station, the victim was made to pay a deposit varying from R2 000 and upwards to find out later they had been fleeced.
According to Deokaran in two of the most recent cases, two people were scammed when they attempted to buy cats online.
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“The first case involved a woman spotting a cat for sale on the internet. We suspect the scammer involved used a fake name and asked the victim to deposit R3 000. The suspect said he would arrange the delivery of the cat a few days later.
“However, the victim never received her cat and realised she had been scammed. Several efforts to get hold of the suspect also proved unsuccessful. The second case followed a similar pattern where the scam artist also asked for R2 000 deposit in order for the victim to purchase a new cat. In that instance she spotted the advert online,” he said.
Deokaran added among the fraud cases registered since 2018, police had also seen people being scammed when buying pets and ‘pedigree dogs’.
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“We are warning residents to be wary of scams like this. If it seems to too good to be true, in most cases it is. We urge residents not to deposit monies without checking the authenticity of the seller,” he said.
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