Emmarentia resident hit by paving scammer
EMMARENTIA - Resident suspects he was tricked by the same pavement scammer operating in Melville and Auckland Park
Zakiya Mckenzie
zakiyam@caxton.co.za
Joseph Eliner was shocked when he read the story Scammer Hits The Streets (Week ending 13 September 2013) in his weekly Northcliff Melville Times.
He is certain that it is the same person who conned him out of R5000 in 2011.
According to the Eliner, the man who is known as 'John Nkosi' or 'Mumbasi' had the same modus operandi as described by Michele Dean of Auckland Park and David O'Reilly of Melville.
“With the cost of everything nowadays people are trying to save anywhere they can. So when he quoted me at half the price I knew it should have cost there was no question about the huge discount,” said Eliner.
“He wanted a cash deposit immediately but when I asked for some reference he got aggressive and told me his phone was stolen and gave us some address in Soweto,” said Joseph's wife Charmaine. “He kept saying 'you think I'm a tsotsi, you won't trust me because you think I'm a tsotsi,' trying to make us feel bad.”
The clever conman knew that his targets would shy away once he brought up the touchy subject of race.
In line with O'Reilly and Dean noting that the man spoke Portugese, Eliner suspects that he might be Mozambican.
“He came the very next morning with two workers who started digging up the driveway.
After that he disappeared and I had to get someone else to repave it so instead of costing us R15 000 it cost me R20 000,” continued the Emmarentia resident.
Just as the cases in Melville and Auckland Park, the man did not want the workers to hear when he negotiated with Eliner. They too came around looking for the pay he had promised them.
“People don't like to come forward with this sort of thing because they are embarrassed to say they were taken for a ride but the more people who know, the less people will get caught by this conman,” said Eliner.
