Scams doing the rounds in Vryheid will make your hair stand on end

“A fool and his money are soon parted,” the saying goes.

In Vryheid, con artists are using a number of scams to make fools of unsuspecting residents, parting them from their hard earned cash before they even realise what has happened.

As the festive season approaches, these criminals have intensified their efforts, striking more often. ‘Money bombs’, card swapping, muti claims, black magic, cyber crime, money market theft, car-jamming… It’s all happening right here in Vryheid, right now.

Do not be a victim, learn from the experiences of others and protect yourself from crime.

Here is a description of some of the scams that people have fallen victim to as recently as last week, according to Vryheid SAPS communications officer, Captain Cheryl Venter:

Dropping the ‘Money Bomb’ to feed on greed

This scam involves a group of three or more con-artists, who work together. One of the criminals waits in the queue inside the bank when it is very busy, usually on or just after paydays. When they get to the front of the queue, they just make an excuse to step out, then rejoin the queue from the back. What this criminal is doing is listening intently to the machine that counts money to hear when a large amount is being withdrawn from inside the bank.

When he is confident that a client has withdrawn a large sum of money, he sends a message to a second criminal, who is waiting outside with the ‘money bomb’. The ‘money bomb’, according to Captain Venter, is a police term used to describe a transparent bag that appears to be full of money, when in fact it is a few hundred and two hundred rand notes that are wrapped around wads of paper to give the appearance of large wads of cash.

Criminal number two drops the ‘money bomb’ where the victim will walk past it. He approaches the ‘money bomb’ at the same time that the victim does, picks it up and says:

“Someone just dropped this. Let’s go around the corner and share the money.”

The victim then accompanies criminal number two to a private spot where they can share the money, when a car pulls up alongside them. In the car, is criminal number three, who is posing as a police officer. The fake police officer is sometimes in uniform, but more often than not, he is dressed in plain clothes and carrying a fake police ID card. Criminal number three ushers the victim and criminal number two into the vehicle, saying that he would like to question them at the police station.

When they have the victim in the car, both criminals drive to an isolated location, rob the victim of all the cash they had withdrawn at the bank and drive off, leaving the victim to find their way back to town.

‘Card swapping’ at the ATM

This scam usually has at least two criminals working together. Criminal one stands in front of the victim in the queue to use an ATM, while criminal two stands behind the victim.

Criminal one arrives at the ATM and makes a withdrawal, walking away from the ATM with his card in one hand and his withdrawn cash in the other, but leaving his slip dangling from the machine. After the victim has inserted his ATM card into the machine and punched in the pin, criminal one returns to the ATM for his slip.

In one swift motion, criminal one then retrieves the slip, hits cancel on the ATM and places his slip over the victim’s card which would have ejected from the machine when he hit cancel. Criminal one now has the victim’s card in his possession, without the victim’s knowledge.

When the victim returns to complete the transaction, he is faced with a screen asking him to insert his card to continue. That is when criminal two steps up behind the victim urging the victim to enter the ATM pin quickly, before the ATM swallows the card. Criminal two observes what the pin is, and sms’s it to criminal one who is already positioned at another ATM. Criminal one now has the victim’s card and pin and is able to withdraw the victim’s maximum daily cash limit, as well as exhaust the victim’s swiping limit before the victim realises what has happened and stops the card.

A well known Vryheid businessman, who fell victim to this scam on Thursday, said he had been using the ATM at the Bloemnel Centre when he received an SMS notifying him that cash had been withdrawn from his account at an ATM at Pick n Pay.

A woman, who fell victim to this scam over the weekend, said it was a matter of about three minutes from arriving at the ATM to having her money stolen and rushing to the bank to report what had happened. “It happens that fast,” she warned.

Muti that turns money into paper

This scam is designed to victimise mostly elderly, African people in town, especifically those in whom a strong traditional belief system is entrenched.

The con-artists target people who have made a withdrawal, either inside the bank or at the ATM. They brush past the victim, rubbing a black substance on the victim’s hand or arm. A second criminal then warns that the substance is strong muti that will turn the victim’s money into paper. He offers to have a sangoma bless the money to protect it. The money is placed into an envelope and the victim is hurried to a fake sangoma. During the ritual, the envelope is swapped and the victim actually does end up with an envelope full of paper.

A ritual to make your money double

A 30-year-old Vryheid school teacher recently lost R20 000 to con-artists who convinced her that if she drank a concoction they had whipped up, and plant her money at the park along the Dundee Road, her money would double overnight.

When she returned to the spot to retrieve her buried money, it was gone.

Cyber Crime and Money Market theft

The most recent victim to cyber crime in Vryheid is a 26-year-old man, who wished to purchase a car that he saw online. After he deposited the money for the car into the seller’s bank account, he never received the car nor heard from the seller again.

Another way people are hoodwinked online, are by companies offering loans that request money to be paid to them before they can release the loan amount being requested. You should not have to pay a financial institution to receive a loan. This is a scam.

Police have also reported a number of incidents in which the pins required to retrieve cash from Money Market accounts offered by most retailers, are being stolen. Somebody seems to be intercepting the pins somehow and withdrawing the money before the intended recipient has a chance to.

Remote-jamming

Finally, car remote-jamming is still occurring at an alarming rate in Vryheid, especially along the stretch of Utrecht Street from High Street to the taxi rank. Criminals simply jam the signal that locks your car’s doors and then help themselves to the contents of your car while your car is unattended. The only solution is to make sure that all your valuables are locked away in the boot and to check that your doors are locked before stepping away from your car.

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