Scamster makes off with business man’s money
A local businessman warns residents to be wary of a scamster who goes by the name 'Julius'
LOCAL businessman Paul Barnard recently fell victim to a scamster who made off with R1608 worth of goods after pretending to be a handy man who would repair his roof.
Paul said he was in the garden of his Malvern home when a man approached the gate and said he had noticed that the roof needed repairing and he was willing to repair it for him. Paul told the man, who called himself Julius, to come back over the weekend to inspect the roof which the man did before giving Paul a quotation. Paul and Julius agreed that the handy man would come back once Paul had budgeted for the repairs but Julius called persistently and by Monday morning he was back at Paul’s gate. Reluctantly, Paul gave the man a go-ahead and “Julius” went to order at a hardware store. Paul paid for the order over EFT and sent proof of payment via fax and advised the store owner that “Julius” would pick up the order but what happened thereafter is something that had never crossed Paul’s mind.
On arrival at the hardware, Julius then claimed that Paul had changed the order to 20 bags of cement and even went as far as demanding the change of R78 as the altered order amounted to less than the initial order. He loaded up his van and left the store.
As soon as Julius left the hardware store emailed Paul to tell him about the changed order.
“I rushed down there as soon as I got the e-mail but I was too late so I immediately went to open a case at Malvern SAPS, I just want to warn people to be very careful who they give jobs too as I think this sort of scam is on the increase”, said Paul.
