A BEREA pensioner has appealed to to the community, especially elderly residents, to ensure they have important contact details for all domestic employees as well as a contact person in case of an emergency. This comes after the woman nearly fell victim to the dead domestic worker scam.
The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, said was was shocked when she was contacted and told that her trusted domestic worker, Judith, who has worked for her for more than 50 years, had died.
“I got a call last Sunday after church. It was a man who said he was Judith's brother-in-law and that she had died the previous night. A moment later a young girl came on the phone crying, she said she was Judith's daughter Beatrice and asked me to help them as they needed R3000 to give it to a church and for groceries and the funeral.
“I was caught completely off guard. I knew Judith had three daughters and one of them was Beatrice, so I said I would try to help. They insisted that I put the money in their account right away through cellphone banking but I said I wasn't sure about that but would try to transfer the money through an EFT,” she said.
When the pensioner's friend arrived to visit, she explained about the distressing call, and was told by her friend about similar scams where people pretending to be family of the deceased domestic worker phone and try lure the employer to transfer funds to their accounts.
The phone calls continued and became more and more desperate until the “brother-in-law” swore at the elderly woman making her realise she was probably a victim in a scam. “What worries me is that they had my phone number and they knew some details. It was only after the initial shock of the news, I realised something funny was going on because I have the paper work for Judith's funeral policy. My daughter later reminded me that Judith's daughter Beatrice was the one who passed on a few years ago. Judith is like family to us. She only comes in once a week, despite me telling her to retire. We are both old now so this was a reality check that at some point she or I will get that call,” she added.
The woman said her domestic worker was hard of hearing and did not believe in cellphones. “I had to call a friend of hers who lives close to her and she told me that Judith was seen leaving her house early on Sunday morning so she definitely did not die on Saturday night. Thankfully, she comes in on a Monday morning and I was able to see her although she was none the wiser.
“I would have sent the money because I know it was her tradition to give money to church for a funeral, I just needed time to get it together. I even asked for the pastor's number to EFT online, but I'm glad the man insisted he needed it by 2pm and that he swore at me because then I suspected it was a scam,” she said.
The woman believes a lot of elderly people on the Berea who employ domestic workers to help them or look after them might be susceptible to such scams. “Especially over the festive season where many domestic help go away for a few weeks. You must have not just your domestic workers contact details, but a next of kin to verify if there are any issues,” she advised.
