La Lucia, KZN, resident Margarita Fuller has warned people to remain vigilant after falling victim to a WhatsApp scam that saw her and several friends conned out of more than R17 000.

Northglen News reports that the incident began early last Friday morning when Fuller received a message at 06:58 from what appeared to be a close friend, Catherine, who lives in Mauritius. The message, seemingly urgent, claimed that Catherine was in a financial pickle and needed assistance to pay former staff members.

“Because we’re always in touch, I didn’t question it immediately. The request seemed genuine and urgent, so I tried to help,” says Fuller.

The fraudsters, posing as Catherine, provided Capitec bank account details and later even contacted others, including friends in the UK, asking for £500.

“The tone quickly changed. I sent voice notes and got one-word answers as a response, which I thought was very unlike Catherine. In hindsight, it was a red flag,” adds Fuller.

By then, it was too late. Fuller had already made a deposit of R4 000 into the scammer’s account.

It was only when the initial message sent from the scammer was duplicated that she realised that she had been scammed. Soon after, members of one of the WhatsApp groups that she and Catherine were members of contacted Fuller and said that fraudsters were trying to con money out of Catherine’s contacts.

“Sadly, two other people had also been duped; altogether they swindled R17 000 from the three of us,” she says.

Having spent more than 40 years in the banking sector, Fuller says she was shocked at how quickly the money disappeared and how little control victims had once the transfer was made.

“It’s incredibly challenging to reverse these payments. They are immediate, and you just don’t have control once they’ve gone through,” she explains.

She praised the Durban North SAPS for their swift assistance in reporting the matter. She also contacted Capitec Bank, which opened a fraud case and provided a reference number. The bank has a 72-hour turnaround time to investigate.

“After reading the front page of the last edition [of Northglen News] where a woman was scammed on Facebook, I thought it’s imperative that I share my story too in the hope that it will create more awareness. There are so many scams these days, and it’s quite easy for one to fall prey to,” she says.

Durban North SAPS spokesperson Sergeant Nonhlanhla Shozi confirmed that a fraud case had been opened. No further details could be obtained at the time of publishing.

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