Brackenhurst resident cries foul after being scammed R5 000

I am writing this letter to warn others, especially Albertonians, about the scamming that I went through at a local mall.

On October 25 while parked, I was approached by a respectable gentleman with a Zimbabwean accent. He was looking for assistance in getting a few boxes of shoes moved from a nearby place to where they supposedly sold spares.

I reluctantly agreed as the guy was wearing a beaded bracelet, thinking such people are truthful. When we arrived where we were supposed to collect boxes of shoes, we met a guy called Banda from Malawi.

He had a small stone, which they said was tanzanite and they wanted to quickly send it to a man who was also around the area.

In a few minutes, a guy who called himself Mnaka, a Swazi name, came in and took the stone for testing.

A few minutes later, he came and said the stone weighed 235 carats and it was to be sold for R1 000 per carat.
He later came back with a bag full of cash in envelopes.

However, a cleaning liquid was needed and R40 000 was required for it.

Stupidly, I joined in and took out an amount of about R5 000, which I withdrew from my wife’s account money, which was to be used to pay for a car instalment.

We were then given the cleaning material, a small bottle, which looked like vanilla essence.

I later discovered that I was scammed and these tricksters disappeared into thin air.

I never thought this would one day happen to me. All I was trying to do was assist my fellow African men who turned out to be scammers.

Brackenhurst resident