Scammers at licensing centre get more daring

Scammers operating at the Akasia licensing centre are becoming more brazen in their attempts to swindle people out of money.

This follows after Rekord reported just a few weeks ago about women who were allegedly being threatened and swindled out of their money to gain entry into the centre.

“I was at the Akasia licensing centre to pay my traffic fines when I was approached by three well-dressed men as I was about to enter the office,” a woman who narrowly escaped the scammers told Rekord about a recent incident.

The three scammers then reportedly told the woman, who asked not to be named, the licensing centre was closed for sanitisation and deep-cleaning purposes.

“I opened the door and the cleaner inside confirmed this,” she said.

The trio then reportedly proceeded to tell her they were court officials and requested her licence after she confirmed she was indeed at the centre to pay her traffic fines.

“One of them typed in my driver’s licence number on his phone and showed me all the traffic fines in my name and told me that he could get me a discount on my fines.

“Then another one took off my car license registration receipt paper,” she said.

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“When he came back, he told me to give him the money for the discounted fines and to wait in my car for him to sort everything out. I was also told that if I went into the Aarto station to pay my fines, I would not get any discount.”

The woman, however, was able to snatch her car licence registration receipt paper back and walk to the nearby Aarto station.

“When I asked the traffic officer inside about these men, he said to me that they scam people into giving them money,” she said.

Tshwane metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said members of the public should report any acts of criminality at the centre to the police.

“The right thing to do is to go to the police and report it.”

Rekord previously reported the metro was concerned over alleged criminal elements at the Akasia licensing centre which allegedly randomly targeted women.

The said criminals allegedly demanded money from the women for them to gain entry into the licensing centre to renew their vehicle licences.

“The city is really concerned and worried about this and we really want to act on it, but we are unable to do so until these faceless people are reported to the police,” Mashigo said.

“We cannot be harbouring these criminals, they have to be reported to the SAPS so they can be investigated.”

Mashigo also said the alleged criminality targeting women could not be taken lightly due to the ongoing incidents of gender-based violence.

Staff at the licensing department had also reportedly fallen victim to the alleged criminals.

“We’ve got an open policy, we communicate directly with them – not through a certain conduit – so we appeal to them to report this matter to their supervisors or their labour unions,” he said.

Mashigo further said it was “prudent” for victims to report the alleged perpetrators to the SAPS as they were “competent in handling heinous criminal cases”.

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