Police have urged community members to be more cautious as a new fraud modus operandi has emerged.
According to Linden Police Station spokesperson, Sergeant Takalani Sibiya, criminals are allegedly posing as fraud department officials over the phone and scamming people out of their money.
These criminals will mention that they’ve noticed that the elderly are being scammed of their money. “They will make you believe that they are from the fraud department of the bank that you are using by confirming with that person your ID number and banking details, [and later] all your money will be gone,” she said.
An estimated R36 156.47 has been stolen through this scam.
Recently, a victim opened at case the station and alleged that she received a call at home from someone claiming to be ‘Jannie Khumalo’ from her bank’s fraud department in Sandton.
‘Khumalo’ claimed she looked after the elderly because there was a lot of fraud committed against them and recited the victim’s account and ID number.
“’Jannie’ asked the complainant to confirm her credit card number which is at the back of the card and the complainant confirmed [it],” Sibiya said.
Minutes later, the victim began receiving bank notifications. “When she checked the notifications, she found that R5 000, R11 156.47 and R2 000 had gone out of her account.”
Later, the victim received a call from her actual bank, notifying her of fraudulent activity on her account. She told them she had spoken to one of their consultants by the name of ‘Jannie Khumalo’ and was informed she may have spoken to a fraudster. “The complainant asked the consultant to cancel her card and the consultant confirmed that it was cancelled.”
In another incident, the victim alleged that he was driving home with his wife, when he received a call from someone by the name of ‘Jannie Khumalo’ claiming to be from his bank’s fraud department in Sandton. “’Jannie’ knew the complainant’s details, ID number, name and surname, card number and phone number. The complainant was convinced that ‘Jannie’ was indeed from the bank as she was professional,” Sibiya said.
The police said when the victim arrived home at around 11:40, he began receiving bank notifications. “Roughly around 12:15, the notifications stopped.”
He found R169 655.44 had been withdrawn from his credit card. The victim reported this matter to the bank.
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