Ward 97 councillor, Andre Beetge warns Toti residents to beware a scam regarding municipal meters, after an Athlone Park pensioner was duped out of thousands of rands on Tuesday, 18 August.
Following complaints to eThekwini Municipality regarding ever-increasing municipal accounts, the pensioner was delighted when he received a call from a person who claimed he was from the municipality and said they were following up on pensioner concerns.
The man said they had someone in the area who could explain how he could benefit from the municipality’s effort to assist pensioners.
“A man arrived with a briefcase and demonstration meter in hand and explained they were rolling out special water meters that would automatically calculate a daily free 300 litres and an electricity meter that could reduce a R2,300 bill to as little as R1,000 per month as the new meter would be subject to a single increase, as opposed to the four already announced by Eskom,” said Cllr Beetge.
All that was needed to reap the benefit of these savings was R4,500 to cover the cost and installation of both meters.
Money changed hands, a receipt and reference number was issued and the agent departed with the pensioner waiting in anticipation of the installation.
“Needless to say, enquiries with the eThekwini revenue department revealed they had no knowledge of any or similar programmes that aim to replace meters in order to secure a reduced rate, either for pensioners or anyone else.
Rather make that call before you hand over your hard-earned cash,” said Cllr Beetge. “If it sounds too good to be true, then most probably it isn’t true at all.”
