A Centurion man has come forward to confirm that he has also been caught in an internet car buying scam in which he lost thousands.
The man (42), who has asked not to be named, said he was scammed last year.
Rekord reported last week that a Centurion couple were taken hostage and robbed by “phony policemen” after trying to sell a car to a buyer they found online.
But the man told Rekord there was proof the robbers were police officers gone rogue.
“The story is the criminals are actually officers in Vanderbijlpark and have been identified but as usual, nothing has happened due to a lack of evidence,” the man said.
He said he too had advertised his “for sale” vehicle on a popular website and within days a man claiming to be a trucker from Namibia making a delivery in Vanderbijlpark called.
“He asked me to meet him at a police station in Vanderbijlpark where he would pay cash.
And while we stood there in front of the police station, an Indian man approached.
The trucker passed what looked like diamonds to him and he, in turn, gave the trucker a package, stacked with cash.
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“I felt very uncomfortable and asked not to be involved in this.”
He said the trucker then asked if they could drive to his family to drop off some money.
“I didn’t want to, but he seemed so sincere. The next thing I know, we were travelling on a gravel road and stopped at some house where he asked me to come inside.”
He said once inside, they were “surprised by police officers”.
“After a debate and accusations of dealing in diamonds, the officers took my bank card and left to withdraw cash out of my account.
I pleaded with the trucker, who had been ordered to guard me while the officers went to the bank, to release me.
I told him I had a wife and children.
By some miracle, he gave me my cellphone back, which I used to block my bankcards and my car keys.
He said if the officers found me there, they would kill me so I made a run for it and never looked back.”
The man said he discovered when he got home that his robbers had already various purchases totalling R20 000 when he blocked his card.
Vanderbijlpark police spokesperson Sergeant Gertrude Makhale said the police were investigating the scam but would not answer when asked if the robbers were police officers saying only that a “lot of cases were being investigated”.
Gauteng Hawks spokesperson Captain Ndivhuwo Carol Mulamu urged victims who had not reported these incidents to come forward “because they might have vital information that could help investigators”.
ALSO READ: Thieves scam victim after stealing car
The man’s account matches that of the couple down to a tee.
Suzette Meyer (52) and her husband Willie (62) had advertised their for sale Nissan X-Trail on a popular local classifieds website to which a man responded.
He told them he was a trucker from Namibia and asked to them at a public place in Vanderbijlpark, then changed the meeting place at the last minute, then again.
When they eventually met, the trucker was joined by an Indian man to whom he appeared to sell diamonds he said were worth R960 000.
Suzette said she and and husband were then taken to a house where the supposed payment for the car would have taken place but instead they were accosted by a group of men.
The men presented themselves as police officers busting a smuggling ring, and threatened to arrest the couple.
Suzette said she had assumed the men were not real officers but ordinary criminals.
She said the men forced them to withdraw thousands of rands from their account, stole their cellphones and jewellery before ordering them to leave.
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