WATCH: Swindled! A tale of greed and corruption
How thugs prey on the homeless.
The housing shortage in South Africa has reached crisis levels and many citizens are homeless, live in makeshift shacks or informal settlements without access to adequate housing.
This housing shortage has spawned a new breed of criminal who prey on the vulnerable with promises of securing homes while fleecing residents desperate to have a roof over their heads.
Noleen Daniels (58) is a victim of just such a scam. The grandmother of one has had to relocate to Eldorado Park after falling victim to just such a scam.
Daniels, who was renting a home in Bezuidenhout Valley in Johannesburg, found herself homeless and was approached by a Mozambican national who she knows as Thelma Menezes.
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Related Story:Â Family loses R40 000 in a house fraudulent scheme
Daniels said, “I was approached by Thelma, who is from Maputo and told that she would be able to arrange a house for me in Primrose. I was to pay R 7 000 upfront, which would be split between a woman named Pearl at the Ekurhuleni Department of Housing and Thelma.”
“Pearl was to receive R 5 000 and Thelma R 2 000 for getting a new client.”
According to Daniels, she paid an additional R 6 100 which was purportedly for one month’s rental and a deposit fee. After this amount was paid out at the Germiston department of housing, the unwitting Daniels had to fork out an additional R 750 towards the water bill. The scam artists advised her that all receipts would be provided once the lease agreement was signed.
She said, “Because my date of birth was incorrectly filled out on the lease agreement, it had to be taken back to the office and was never returned.”
WATCH:
Noleen Daniels (58) talks about how she was scammed.
Video by Enver Wessels
According to Daniels, she lived with Menezes for a period of three-and-a-half months last year and finally moved out after realising that the house would not materialise after Menezes made excuse after excuse each time she enquired about the house.
Gina Bishop (42) also fell prey to the same scam, which she says was perpetrated by Menezes, Pearl, Busi and Jamilah who are purportedly all employed by the Ekurhuleni Department of Housing.
Bishop provided WhatsApp conversations in which Menezes demands money from Bishop which she paid using the Shoprite Money Transfer facility.
The Eldorado Urban News reporter contacted all the players in the scam on January 10, for comment but the calls went unanswered.
Both Daniels and Bishop are still homeless at the time of going to print and the two are demanding that a full-scale investigation into Menezes, Pearl, Busi and Jamilah be conducted before other unsuspecting, desperate families are taken to the cleaners as a result of corrupt operators out to make a quick buck from other families in distress.
WhatsApp conversations between Gina Bishop &Â Thelma Menezes:
