A SEADOONE Road couple are R8,500 out of pocket after they were scammed by a con-artist who claimed their domestic worker of 24 years had died and her family needed money for her funeral.
The couple, who are pensioners and do not wish to be named, received the ‘devastating’ phone call on Saturday, 7 March at about 7.30am. “I was absolutely horrified. The caller at first claimed to be my domestic worker’s brother and later her son. He sounded extremely upset and was crying.”
To further convince the couple, the caller gave the domestic worker’s name, her children’s names and the number of years she had worked for them.
“He called back later the same day and asked for R5,000 for funeral expenses. We agreed and asked how we could get the money to him. He said via instant money through the bank, which we did. We then sent R3,500 through a Checkers store.”
More phone calls followed and the man asked for R10,000. “I told him we had no more cash. We requested to go to him or he could come to us. He said things don’t work like that.” The couple were inundated with more calls on Sunday, 8 March for more money and told him again they had no cash.
On Monday morning, they were sitting in their computer room, when to their surprise their domestic worker walked in. “We were chatting and when we looked up, she was standing in the doorway. I told her, I thought you were dead. We were shocked.”
In December, a Department of Labour official had checked whether her employer was complying with UIF regulations. “It was a genuine department official who paid us a visit. But, unbeknown to me, someone claiming to be from the same department called last week to do a follow-up. They asked my domestic questions about her family and employment.”
Before the con-artist called the couple, he contacted the domestic worker and told her to switch off her cellphone as there was a problem with her number and that she should only switch it on at 3pm. At the time, the couple did not think to call her, as they were devastated at the news. “We were shocked. She is so much a part of our family and we wanted to help.”
