A 54-year-old Midrand man is behind bars on suspicion of scamming a senior citizen out of thousands of rands.
The suspect was arrested on 24 April after he allegedly scammed an elderly woman out of at least R500 000 under the pretence that she was buying a vehicle.
According to a statement by the South African Police Department, “The Hawks Serious Commercial Crime Investigation launched an investigation after they were approached by a nutrition distributor on Tuesday [21 April] who claimed that she was approached by the suspect who showed interest in her products.”
The woman presented the suspect with an invoice and account details and to her surprise, exactly R300 000 was deposited into the business account instead of R1 073 as agreed. She contacted the Midrand police who escalated the matter to the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DCPI) for further investigation.
On 24 April, the investigation team managed to trace and identify the source of the R300 000. The 72-year-old senior citizen informed the team that she transferred R500 000 in instalments of R200 000 and R300 000 to two different accounts for a new vehicle.
The investigating team established the victim was tricked as neither the company name nor the address appearing on the invoice was valid. Both accounts were immediately frozen and the suspect was arrested. Investigations are still ongoing.
The national head of the DPCI Lieutenant General Godfrey Lebeya has welcomed the speedy arrest of the suspect.
“It is disheartening to see how crooks are targeting the elderly. We shall also be focussing on the legal status of the individual into the country,” said Lebeya.
“Meanwhile, the team managed to seize cell phones, sim cards and a storage device from the suspect for further processing. He is expected to appear in the Midrand Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday [28 April] facing charges of fraud and money laundering.”
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