Vossie Vos, SAPO head of security, explains how the scam works.
“A sealed SAPO Speed Services Couriers package will be delivered to your doorstep or workplace,” he says.
The package will contain a laminated certificate claiming that a substantial amount has been paid into a Postbank account opened for the receiver of the package.
The instruction in the delivery package states that to activate the Postbank account opened for the person, in order to claim the winnings, the account holder needs to pay a certain amount of cash into another account.
“This is when the person is conned.
“You will be seeing the last of the money that you deposit into the other account,” he says.
SAPO advises the community to ignore items of this nature when they receive them.
Postbank, SAPO or any of its other subsidiaries will never open an account on behalf of someone and request an activation fee.
Vos says the community should always be wary of any promises of large winnings for competitions they never took part in.
“Also, you should know that you are probably being scammed in any situation where you are required to pay an amount of money up front, either as an admin fee or for any other reasons, to access large sums of money,” he adds.
SAPO is currently working with law enforcement agencies to trace the perpetrators of this scam and members of the public with information are requested to call the police or the SAPO’s Crime Buster hotline on 0800 020 070.
