A vigilant resident outsmarted scam artists trying to obtain money from her on Sunday. She received a call from people claiming to be her domestic worker’s family, saying she had died in an accident.
The “family” said they were stranded in Marble Hall and needed money for airtime and transport. The person who called said he was her worker’s son, but after requesting his ID number, she saw that he was close to her worker’s age. Upon telling him that, he tried to change his story and said he was a brother.
The resident was very shocked and responded that she didn’t hand out money on a whim, the family should bring a death certificate. The scammers called a few times afterwards, requesting cash, but put the phone down every time the resident wanted information.
The woman said the strangest thing of all was that the callers knew her and her husband’s names, telephone numbers and the domestic worker’s details. She also tried phoning her domestic worker, in case it was a scam, but her phone was off.
When she arrived back at work and was informed of the calls, she responded that someone from Vodacom had called her on Saturday. The person said she needed to switch off her phone for a few hours due to upgrades. She had exactly that and then gone to a church function, only switching her cell on later.
The resident said friends from Pretoria told her they had experienced the same scam and reported it to their community policing forum. She has prepared a statement and plans to go to the police to report it.
