Promises of easy money gives man sleepless nights

The stressed-out father of four told Kathorus MAIL that by the time his mother’s funeral was over, he was left financially drained and down to his last rand.

Soon Mkhwnazi found he was desperate for money to see him through month-end. “There were other expenses that needed to be sorted out immediately. My next pay day was almost a month away and there was not enough money left in the house-kitty to see me and my family through to my next pay cheque,” recalled the frustrated Katlehong man as he tried to explain his desperate plight to the police at the local SAPS.“Luckily”, explained Mkhwanazi, as if some kind of ‘manna’ from above, he remembers receiving an SMS on his mobile phone offering financial loans for a reasonable repayment fee. The desperate Mkhwanazi says he thought luck was on his side and his ‘ancestors’ had finally intervened to alleviate his financial woes.

“Excited, I immediately called the number listed at the end of the text message and a female voice with an African or Indian accent, answered my call and introduced herself as a representative from Quick Finance,” explained a still visibly shaken Mkhwanazi.

According to Mkhwanazi, this finally led to a lengthy phone discussion with the woman who he says promised to call him back about his request for a R10 000 loan application once all his personal details had been sent through to the Quick Finance head office to be first verified for approval.

Within a few minutes, Mkhwanazi’s cellphone rang and it was the woman who informed him that, not only has head office approved his initial loan for R10 000, but that the finance company has in fact increased his amount to R20 000.

“She told me that the company has found me to be a worthy and deserving client due to my clean credit record”, recalled Mkhwanazi.

“I was even more excited when the woman told me that this increase on my initial loan, would mean I have to repay the Quick Finance a sum of R581.62 per month until my loan was fully paid off,” said Mkhwanazi.

That night, Mkhwanazi says he went to bed holding his heart in his hands as he spent the sleepless night waiting for dawn to break so he could lay his hands on the R20 000 the woman promised would be deposited into his bank account as early as 9am, early the next morning.

The following morning, Mkhwanazi says he again waited in vain for a notification on his cellphone indicating that the money had been deposited into his account. By late that afternoon, he called the woman again to enquire why the money had not been deposited into his bank account as promised.

“My apology Mr Mkhwanazi, there’s has been a minor glitch and head office would like you to immediately deposit a service charge fee of R1 280 before they can release the fees into your bank account in the next three hours,”said the female voice on the other end of the phone.

According to Mkhwanazi, by then the time was just after 2pm and he realised that three hours later would be well after 5pm, but he told himself that the R20 000 loan the woman had promised him would maybe be made available in his account the following morning.

The highly perturbed and emotional Mkhwanazi, gave Kathorus MAIL the dates on which he said he deposited a total of R3 730, in various amounts into a Capitec Bank account at the Sontonga Mall, a branch in Katlehong, as requested by the woman who claimed she was a representative of Quick Finance.

Mkhwanazi confirmed that he had paid;

· R1 250 into account no 470010 of C Cindi at Capitec Bank on October 16

· R1 480 into the same account as instructed by Mr C Cindi on October 23

· R1 000 into the same account on October 26

While he was being interviewed by Kathorus MAIL at the Ramokonopi Police Station, where he pleaded with the police to help him recover his R3 730 from Quick Finance, the woman with the accent called again to assure him that the R20 000 loan would be available in his account that afternoon.

However, when contacted by Kathorus MAIL on Mkhwanazi’s phone, the man who answered the phone, refused to disclose his details, but suddenly changed his voice to sound like that of a female, saying his name was Kate.

“It sounds like I’m no longer speaking to Mr Mkhwanazi and I cannot continue this discussion with you”, he said before ending the call and switching off his phone.

And when Kathorus MAIL tried to contact the Johannesburg landline number listed under Quick Finance, Telkom telephone enquiries indicated that the number does not exist.

When contacted on the same number used to call Mkhwanazi, a male voice again answered the phone and insisted that his name was Kate and that ‘she’ was aware of Mkhwanazi’s loan application and that she was dealing with it.

However, Mkhwanazi confirmed he still has not received the R20 000 loan promised by Quick Finance.

In response to an email sent by Kathorus MAIL to Capitec Bank, we were requested to furnish the bank with the account details into which Mkhwanazi was asked to deposit the total amount of R 3 370 in three amounts.

The Katlehong police refused to open a case and told the frustrated Mkhwanazi that there was no basis for them to open a case since no fraud had been committed as he had voluntarily deposited the money into the fraudulent bank account.

“As the police, we would like to warn the community that they must ensure that they are dealing with a reputable loan company when they apply for loans,” explained police spokesperson of the Katlehong SAPS, Captain Mega Ndobe.