Mr Anthony Boucher (private investigator, SA Investigations) told www.mobserver.co.za that they are investigating several identity theft cases.

One of the victims is Ms Charlene Pretorius, who contacted them for assistance to clear her name after she fell victim to identity theft and fraud.

Ms Pretorius advertised on her Facebook profile that she was looking for employment or extra income opportunities.
Shortly thereafter, she was contacted by a lady who offered her a job as a caregiver for her elderly parent.

She was elated by the opportunity and the salary she was presented with.

After a lengthy conversation with the lady, that stretched over several days, Ms Pretorius sent her a copy of her ID, as well as her CV.

The woman then proceeded to ask Ms Pretorius for assistance. She stated that the builders at their house were busy working on preparing the apartment where her elderly parent would stay when she moves in with them, but claimed that she and her husband were out of town on business.

She requested to pay money into Ms Pretorius’ bank account and asked her if she would mind withdrawing the cash and paying the builders.

“Our client agreed and a total of four transactions were made to her account. On every transaction the lady told our client to keep a small amount for herself for her efforts to help them.”

It was not until Ms Pretorius saw her ID being posted online mentioning her as a wanted person that she realised something was wrong.

A few days later, she noticed her bank account was frozen when she tried to withdraw her children’s maintenance cheque.
She contacted SA Investigations, and they started an immediate investigation into the matter.

“We found that our client was used as a means to obtain fraudulent money from innocent people, and by withdrawing money and delivering cash to third parties, the trace to the actual scammers was cut off. Thus leaving the paying victims with only one party to pursue, our client.”

SA Investigations collected all the evidence, financial statements and messages involved in the case.

“We did a thorough investigation and we can confirm without a doubt that our client had no part in the scam. She was scammed just as the people who paid the money to her account were scammed.”

The investigation is ongoing, and the team at SA Investigations are working on finding the actual criminals involved.

If you have any information about this case, call 064 534 5853 or send an email to info@rsainvestigate.com.

• Except for the investigation into the case of Ms Pretorius and several other victims, Mr Boucher mentioned that they just started a new investigation into a similar case, “Identity theft is a big problem and all the people whose identities were stolen said they went to the police to open cases, but the police refused to open any, because they say they are not victims, because they lost nothing. They are actually all victims, because their identities were stolen to commit a crime!” stated Mr Boucher.