TAHIR SEMA | Rising cost of living gives rise to scammers

Beware, scammers are everywhere. The state of the economy post-Covid, rising inflation, rising interest rates, the rising costs of oil, rising cost of fuel, rising cost of necessities and the rising cost of all other goods and services have also given way to the rise of scammers who prey on innocent people for their hard-earned money.

From work to home, friends and family, you will hear about the scams making rounds in SA, increasingly sophisticated scams, I must add. What is worse is that these criminals operate with supposed impunity and with total disregard for the law and humanity. A few instances of scams worth exposing are firstly the sale of RDP houses and land to the poor and vulnerable. These scams often originate on social media; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and WhatsApp claiming to offer a fully subsidised government house (RDP) for “cold drink” money.

A shoddy advert is placed on social media platforms calling all those interested in receiving a free house or land from the government to contact them. Upon contacting the given WhatsApp number you are reassured of the authenticity of the claims and asked to pay a bribe. Once you pay the bribe, you are given excuse after excuse as to when you will receive your house and land but receive nothing in return. Sadly, many innocent people, including the elderly, have fallen victim to these unscrupulous individuals.

The other scam is where the scamsters pretend to be a prominent politician or member of society and ask supporters, businesspeople, or good Samaritans to urgently send funds via a supermarket counter cash transfer or EFT to a mobile number so the money cannot be traced, or the transaction cannot be reversed. The credibility of prominent people is used to dupe unsuspecting people into transferring money urgently to handle a desperate situation with the promise that they will pay you the money back by the evening.

The plethora of other scams which you need to guard against include cellphone theft and cashless card withdrawal, cellphone theft and the scammers sending WhatsApp messages to your contacts asking them to lend you money urgently, smooth pickpockets in busy areas, email phishing scams claiming to have sent you proof of payment in the attachment to lure you to click a suspicious link exposing your personal information, SMS scams encouraging you to click on a link to gain access to your phone and bank accounts.

I know of one family member, a colleague and a friend who have fallen victim to the above scams. These are intelligent people that just got caught off guard, so beware, the scams are now increasingly sophisticated in their approach and tactics. These scamsters are getting caught, like the 41-year-old lady from Soweto who was tracked, arrested and charged this week with fraud, for illegally selling an RDP house to an unsuspecting desperate victim.

If you buy government land illegally you could construct your house only for it to be demolished. You will then be left not just with a major hole in your pocket but also possibly in jail for the illegal occupation of land.

To protect yourself, never give anyone money for something the government gives for free as is the case with an RDP house or land, call the police or your closest government offices to verify information, research on the internet about the individual or company, do not click on any link that looks suspicious and report these scams to the local authorities.

• Sema is head of communication Gauteng department of human settlements