Residents in Pretoria are being scammed at an alarming rate while authorities say that awareness about scams is the best tool to combatting them.
Police stations such as Wierdabrug SAPS have reported shocking increases in people opening scamming and fraud cases.
Tshwane SAPS spokesperson, Johan van Dyk confirmed to Rekord that there has been an increase in these cases recently.
“Especially online scams where goods are advertised on Facebook and other social media for a fraction of the value,” he explained.
“People see a bargain and when they go to collect the items, they are robbed.”
Van Dyk said that in one incident, a victim was even killed.
“We are trying to educate people that they must not go blindly to a secluded place where they have to meet the people.”
He advises residents to rather meet them at a police station or other safe places.
In other scams, victims are told that they will get high returns on investments.
“We also have love scams, where people are meeting each other on dating sites,” said Van Dyk.
He said that the victims are then told that their new love interest is struggling with money and requests some money be paid to their account.
“People pay a lot of money, sometimes hundreds of thousands of rands, just to discover it was a scam all along.”
Rekord spoke to the daughter of one such victim, who says that her elderly mother fell in love with a famous American actor who reached out to her over Facebook.
The resident requested to remain anonymous to protect the identity of her mother. So far, the family has lost almost R100 000 to the scam, while interventions have fallen on deaf ears.
“We have tried to report this to the police, but she [mother] does not believe she is being scammed and is distancing herself from us, claiming that we are interfering in her relationship with the actor.
“You never think that something like this will happen to you until it does. We don’t know what to do anymore,” she said.
Another elderly resident in Pierre van Ryneveld said that when she was scammed in a supermarket in the area, she was too embarrassed and scared to report the crime.
“The man scammed me out of R1 600 while I was shopping,” she explained.
In a common tactic, the scammer approached her in the store and requested just a few items.
However, when she got to the till, the man had added expensive items to the bill and intimidated her into paying.
“I was so scared, so I just paid the amount. Two weeks later, another person tried to do this to me.
“I think they target older ladies because we are vulnerable.”
Roads and transport MMC Katlego Mathebe said this week crime, harassment and scammers infiltrated all eight of its licensing centres.
She warned that scammers were posing as city employees.
This after 2 000 sheets of face values were stolen from the C de Wet Licencing Centre in Pretoria CBD on August 11.
She said that any licensing certificates with serial numbers BZ8084001 up to BZ8268000 should be reported to the nearest police station.
“Residents must take personal responsibility by ensuring that they are assisted by a city official and also by insisting on obtaining the name of the official,” she said.
Banks such as Nedbank have also urged caution, especially on social media.
“[Social media has] become a breeding ground for innovative scams that make it difficult to separate a good deal from the latest fraud attempt,” it states on its website.
According to Nedbank, con artists are making use of new technologies that can make many scams sound realistic.
It warns that scams like fake loans, fake jobs, fake deliveries, phone calls from scammers pretending to be friends in distress, inheritance messages, and fake celebrity endorsements are trending scams.
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