Several Tshwane metro workers could not believe their eyes when receiving their last pay cheque, there was a small unaccountable deduction for something they did not know about.
The exact scale and depth of the scam has not yet been made public, but it is speculated that the monetary value could run into tens of thousands of rands.
The scam, whereby small amounts – never exceeding more than R100 – are deducted from municipal workers’ salaries came to light when some of the workers queried the amounts deducted from their bank accounts.
After investigation, fraudulent signatures were found linked to the deductions. When asking their banks what the deductions were for, municipal workers had been advised to reverse the transactions. Their queries led them all to Sure Bank, where an alleged fraudster had a legitimate account to which these small amounts had been transferred into.
Isaac Mahamba, spokesperson of the metro police, said that they, after the initial reports, are conducting their own investigation into the matter. “At this stage we still don’t know how many people have been affected by it. We will, in due course, issue a press release regarding the matter.” He declined to say whether it was only the metro police or workers from other departments of the municipality which have been targeted by this fraud.
Aspects which will be investigated are whether the fraudster did work in conjunction with a syndicate targeting municipal workers and to what extent human resources of the municipality could be involved.
Karin Zwiegelaar, public relations officer of Sure Bank, said that all of a sudden they received numerous calls from the workers who had been defrauded and immediately started with their investigation and recovery process.
She explained how this scam works.
“We have experienced many types of scams and fraudulent practices in the past, but this one is truly exceptional. It has all the ingredients of a white collar crime and the perpetrator knew exactly what he was doing. This is no small-time criminal. We also immediately started with the process of recovering the money and this is still ongoing. We are well aware that in cases like this, the fraudster will deposit the money and directly afterwards withdraw it again,” she said.
She said that the business involved, which managed to get access into the accounts of municipal workers, has an account with Sure Bank.
“It is a fairly new account, but as with any other business account, the applicant has to show proof of a registered business. He was subjected to an array of checks, which form part of a very thorough and rigorous process. He passed every criteria with flying colours,” she said.
She said that Sure Bank is investigating the fraud and that all the assets of the account holder have been frozen and no transactions through that account are being allowed.
“What is crystal clear is that the culprit must have had a contact in the human resources section of the municipality who had access to workers’ accounts and personal information. We urge the victims of this heinous crime to immediately open a case of corruption at the police station. The fraudster can only be caught if they do so, because our case against the business entity is based on their affidavits,” she said.
The risk manager of the bank said that immediately after this fraud came to light, the business involved was contacted and asked to bring all documents to the bank which proved that the account holder had lawful access to the municipal workers’ accounts.
“Once complainants have laid a charge of fraud against this business, I can divulge information to the police. This would put the police in the position to investigate a charge of corruption and apprehend the business owner,” the risk manager said.
The bank declined to offer information regarding how many people have been affected by this scam or what the monetary value of the scam is, stating that it all formed part of the investigation.
Rekord tried in vain to contact Tshwane mayoral spokesman Blessing Mahale to find out precisely how many municipal workers have been affected by the fraud.
