Zendai Development South Africa hit by email scam

Zendai Development South Africa (ZDSA) has issued a warning to alert members of the public about an e-mail purporting to be sent from the company requesting bids to consult, contract and supply to the Modderfontein New City project.

This scam involves false emails in the name of Zendai Development South Africa asking prospective suppliers to bid to provide services like earthworks, road construction, landscaping, demolition, roofing, paving, solar installations and lighting, among other services.

The email also calls on civil, structural, electrical, mechanical, fire and traffic engineers, architects, facilities managers, surveyors and town planners to bid to provide consulting services.

“We have once again become aware of the risk to bidders of being scammed through the emails. Furthermore, the perpetrators are now using the names of staff members employed by ZDSA,” said Mr Wenhui Du, chief executive officer.

He said the email first surfaced in June 2016. It invited interested parties to buy bid documents for a non-refundable fee of between R5 000 and R10 000 to be considered for evaluation. Banking details were provided on calling the number in the email.

“Over the past two months, the perpetrators have changed the amount, address, contact details and briefing dates to avoid detection and impede investigative efforts. To add a degree of legitimacy to the scam email, the suspected fraudsters are also misusing the Zendai logo,” said Mr Du.

“While the letter does not provide specific details of the bank account, it provides the name of one ‘Helen Frans’ as a contact person. ZDSA has no person called Helen Frans in its employ,” said Mr Du.

“It follows the most basic template for scamming unsuspecting bidders and suppliers. It requests a non-refundable deposit to be made to an account. An advisory to this effect was placed on our website when first alerted to the email,” said Mr Du.

Members of the public are reminded not to respond to any fraudulent emails and not to make such payments.

“ZDSA has not sent out any such emails or request for proposals. ZDSA bears no responsibility for amounts being deposited or any further engagements as a follow-up to the email,” said Mr Du.

He said a case of fraud has been opened with the Germiston Commercial Crime Unit.

“Businesses need to be vigilant when it comes to submitting tenders and verify the antecedents of such emails. If you are a supplier and have any doubts or questions around our own procurement processes, please contact ZDSA,” said Mr Du.