Since the start of the pandemic, the South African Social Security Agency social grant programmes have been hit by different kinds of scammers. Recently, SASSA has been alerted of a new modus operandi used to scam and defraud social grant beneficiaries.

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The scammers claim to be SASSA employees, who move around in communities with skimming devices targeted to defraud beneficiaries of their social grant monies.

The fraudsters approach beneficiaries and convince them to ‘check’ if their social grant cards are still valid by swiping them through a device. By so doing, the scammers are then skimming the beneficiaries’ card for later cloning.

This then gives the scammers time to load a beneficiary’s information onto a new card and withdraw all the money.

SASSA would like to warn all social grant beneficiaries to be alert and not to co-operate with anybody who requests their cards in the street or at home for whatever reason.

SASSA does not send its staff to people’s homes to tamper with their cards. The public is requested to report these incidents immediately to the police or contact SASSA on 0800-601-011.

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SASSA CEO, Totsie Memela cautioned social grant clients. “A report has been found that the scammers follow beneficiaries, who have recently been paid especially in the Eastern Cape, North West and KZN. We do not know as yet if they also ask the beneficiaries to enter their card PINS, however, in such cases, beneficiaries are advised to please always keep their social grant payment card PINs safe and to themselves,” she said.