Cape Town - The Durbanville Community Policing Forum (CPF) has warned its residents about an ongoing online scam in which three individuals lost large amounts of money in what was meant to be an exchange of goods after cash transfers.
This criminal act is initially carried out telephonically and lures “possible buyers” with false information.
Three residents from Durbanville were scammed by online criminals and lost about R87550 combined.
The CPF said in the latest incident a resident was contacted by a person who claimed he was an Absa Bank representative. After the call, the complainant received an SMS informing him that someone was buying flight tickets from his account. He later realised he had been defrauded of R53 000 from his Absa Bank account.
In another case, two residents were scammed out of R22000 when one of the two was tempted to buy a vehicle on MarketPlace. The victim contacted the seller to ask whether the vehicle was still available before he deposited the money for a vehicle he never received.
Another resident, who was selling her Dell laptop for R12 550 on MarketPlace, never received her money after she had given the laptop to the buyer.
Durbanville Classified spokesperson Tess Rodrigues said Durbanville residents were being targeted more because they were active consumers. They always looked for bargains and they had the money to spend, she said.
“Buying from MarketPlace is a reckless thing to do because there is no verification against anybody. One can claim to be ‘selling whatever they want to sell’ without being checked, and that is the reason these scammers get away with their crimes.”
The Durbanville police are urging residents to be cautious when buying or selling items over the internet.