POLOKWANE – At least two people who responded to an advertisement placed in the Review dated April 24-30, have complained that the advertisement was part of a scam.
This would appear to indeed be the case, as payment for the advertisement also later proved to be fraudulent, with the “proof of payment” proved a fake.
The advertisement, placed in the section for small advertisements, offered loans to people, even if they were blacklisted.
Both complainants who spoke to Review said they contacted the telephone number supplied in the advertisement and were told to deposit R1 500 into a bank account.
They said they were told that forms would then be sent to them online and they would be informed what amount they qualified for. The person applying for the loan would also have to give 10% of the loan amount to the advertiser as they were “assisted by a person in the bank who helped them, and this person needed to be reimbursed for his assistance”. They were assured that, even if they had a bad credit record, they would get the loan.
“I paid R1 500 into the Standard Bank account of one MJ Senthumule and waited for the form I had to complete,” one of the complainants, who wanted to warn the public about the scam, said. “I had to send them a bank statement too. I am still waiting. The phone number and e-mail address do not exist anymore.”
Review also dialled one of the numbers supplied by the advertiser. The call was answered by a man who said his name was Mattie. There were background sounds as if he was speaking from a call centre. “Mattie” wanted information such as the caller’s identity number. He also wanted to know how much the caller wanted to borrow and what the caller’s income was.
Although “Mattie” claimed they had offices in Tzaneen, Pretoria and Mokopane he did not want to divulge their addresses, saying he would rather send the addresses via SMS.
“Mattie” kept insisting everything could be handled online, even though Review indicated that it would be preferable to talk to him in person.
The promised SMS containing the addresses were also never received.
The complainants indicated that they intended reporting the matter to the police.
