Students a soft targets for criminals and scammers
BRIXTON – Students are urged to be more street-smart as they return to in and around campus.
This year is the first year since the Covid-19 pandemic that universities will have all their students on and around their campus.
For many, this will be a time of excitement and adventure but for some, it will come with traumatic and unfortunate experiences of crime. Brixton police have warned those returning and coming to universities’ spaces to be wary of criminals and scammers.
Brixton police spokesperson Jeanette Backhoff stated, “Brixton SAPS in conjunction with Protection Services at the University of Johannesburg are working hand in hand, on and off-campus to make students aware about criminal activities in and around campus, but we need the assistance of students to ensure that they safeguard their valuables as some of the cases that are being reported are due to negligence.”
Currently, common robberies are one of the problematic crimes in the precinct as students are being robbed of their valuables such as cell phones, laptops and other personal items as they are soft targets and vulnerable.
When on campus, students are warned to not leave valuable items with other students in classes or the library and should rather make use of lockers, if present, on campus.
Backhoff added, “Students also act naïve when it comes to scams where so-called prophets will ask them to leave their valuables with them to pray for them and when they come back, the items have disappeared with the so-called prophet.”
Another crime students are falling victim to is being taken advantage of by not properly investigating accommodation that they have been informed about. Backhoff said such students will phone the contact number placed on the advert, pay a deposit with a month’s rent only to realise that it was a false advertisement when they need to collect the key.
“Students are warned not to trust anyone if something is too good to be true it is most definitely not true. They also need to realise that the safe-keeping of their valuables are their responsibility. Students are also encouraged to be more street-smart and to plan their routes in advance and to be alert at all times and, if possible, walk-in groups and not alone.”
