Women scammed out of their retirement money

A 58-year-old clerk was scammed out of R1-million of her retirement money by her boyfriend of nine months earlier this year.

The case was reported at the Akasia police station, which has noted a new crime trend in which retired public servants are targeted for their retirement money.

“There are more than 10 similar cases currently under investigation,” said Akasia police spokesperson Lindiwe Mabasa.

“In most of the cases, the perpetrators are foreign nationals.”
The victim who reported the case said that she had met her boyfriend, who goes by the name Innocent, in her area of work in Randburg.

The 52-year-old told her of a business venture and said she must retire to pursue this venture and she complied.
After she had retired and received her money, Innocent asked her to accompany him to his uncle in The Orchards for a visit, where she would also get more details on the business venture.

She recalled that upon arrival she was seated in a living room with a cloth in the middle, dividing the room.

Whilst seated, she heard a voice from the other side of the cloth telling her to look into a container filled with money.

The voice told her that if she withdrew money from her retirement package and put it into the container, it would double in return.

She would thus get to keep the money she had seen in the container as well.

The victim left for home and the next day she went to the bank to withdraw the money.

They returned to the house in The Orchards to put the money into the container and were instructed to leave the money overnight.

When the victim arrived the next day, the house was empty and the boyfriend’s phone was switched off.

“The boyfriend, who is of Ghanaian nationality, is still at large. Police are appealing to the public to come forward with information that will assist in locating him as we believe he will be of assistance in the investigation.”

In a similar incident last month, a woman registered a case of theft at the police station after she was scammed out of R700 000 by a man she was romantically involved with, who has since disappeared.

Police noted that the perpetrators use the same tactics to dupe their victims.

“The victim and the perpetrator start dating. After a short while, they ask them to fund their business for which they require hard cash capital.

“The victim is convinced that this business will bring a great return on investment. The victim will either resign from their job to get the lump sum for their government pension fund or, if already retired, withdraw from it to give to the perpetrators,” said Mabasa.

Station commander Colonel Godfrey Zwane asked the community to report such crimes so the perpetrators can be brought to book.

He also urged retired persons to be vigilant and guard against falling prey to this trend.

Colleen Strauss, the head social worker at the Sinoville crisis centre, said that this sort of scam happens a lot, but is not reported to the police as people are ashamed of the way it was done.

“The sweetheart scam normally will start by making an emotional connection by either making friends with the person and saying that they are in love with them.

“Victims will be widowed women, living on their own with no emotional support base as a lot of the elderly are provided with financial support from their children. However, they lack emotional support as there are no friends or companions, which is what they need.”

Strauss said that the scammer will bring the prospect of a companion or someone willing to listen and spend time with them by forming an emotional bond.

The relationship ends once the money is gone.

“Women who fall victim to these scams are often brought to the police by their children to open cases as they are ashamed of having trusted someone and that those emotions were not real.”

The centre offers to counsel the victims as the scammers feed off their emotional needs.
“These are often social media-based scams that make it difficult to track these scammers.

“It is very important to open a case as it needs to be investigated as these happen often, but people do not report it,” Strauss concluded.

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