LimCare-Well loses donor money to online scammers
Communication was intercepted during the payment process for a generator and the organisation lost most of the donated money.
POLOKWANE – LimCare-Well, a non-profit organisation where patients can recover after having undergone operations or other medical procedures, recently became the target of cybercrime.
In a recent article, Polokwane Observer reported on LimCare-Well’s ability to finally buy a much-needed generator. The amount of R75 000 needed had been raised over two months and consisted of donations from the public.
In our initial article, Corné Marais, the manager at LimCare-Well, explained that load-shedding has a big effect on this facility.
“We need to plan load-shedding accordingly to assist patients to be in manageable positions and on mobile oxygen. Our security system is compromised too when we have load-shedding. Then there is the fact that our borehole and water pump do not function without electricity. We constantly need water in the hospitium. Most of the machines patients use, are electrically powered.”
During the payment process for the generator, communication was however intercepted, and the organisation lost most of the donated money.
“We received an invoice in an Excel-format file and I forwarded it to our accountants to pay. The payment was made but after a few days, we learned that the person who sold us the generator never received the money.” Some investigation on their part showed that their online domain had been duplicated and since the invoice was in Excel, a different account number had been entered and sent to the accountants.
The interception, according to Marais, happened within 12 minutes after she sent the mail to the accountants.
“The scammers changed just one letter in my e-mail address when they intercepted the domain.”
In a matter of minutes, they lost all the money raised.
“An official at one of the banks I went to, told me they could pay back R320, as this was all that was left in the account and that there was nothing else they could do.”
Marais says the incident has left them worse off than before as they are still without a generator.
“We are not even back to square one, we are worse off. It is donor money that was stolen. We also sold some items to get to the final amount of R75 000 and now that is gone too,” she concluded.
An acquaintance from the Hawks assisted Marais to report the incident.
