THE Sustainable Energy Society of Southern Africa (SESSA) has distanced itself from the electricity survey and solar water heating scam which is doing its rounds in KwaZulu-Natal.
This comes after several complaints from residents of people who pose as SESSA officials who make home visits, claiming to be doing consumption surveys in the area.
A couple from Sea Park fell prey to this scam last Saturday.
The victims, who want to remain anonymous, received a call from someone who claimed they were from SESSA. The person said the company was selling energy saving equipment on the South Coast. He asked to come to their house.
“My husband and I were already discussing getting a new solar geyser, so when we received the call, it immediately caught our attention,” said the wife.
She added that when the official came he showed them the geyser, with a price tag of R3 000. She used her credit card to pay and was promised the equipment would be delivered ‘soon’.
“When they left, I had a feeling that I had been scammed. When I called the number on the receipt, there was no answer and when I got onto the Internet, I realised the truth,” she said.
She explained how convincing the ‘official’ had been; he had the right answers for all the questions asked, and even had an identity card.
Last Sunday the couple received another call from an ‘official’ from SESSA who wanted to run a ‘consumption survey’.
“When I received the call I knew it was the same people ready to scam us again,” she said. The family asked the Herald to sit through the ‘presentation’.
At exactly 7.30pm the phone rang and the ‘official’ from SESSA informed them that he was outside.
For about an hour he chatted to the couple about how to save energy, did a ‘survey’ on how much electricity they were using and what equipment they need to save energy.
Getting frustrated with the lies, the couple finally told the scamster that they knew what he was up to and that they had been scammed by the same company before.
With nowhere to hide, the man had no choice but to come clean. He explained how he and his two colleagues had scammed residents from Port Edward to Southport.
“We mainly target pensioners because they are gullible and always want to save money,” he said. He revealed that he had made four sales that Saturday and all the ‘buyers’ had paid cash.
SESSA has warned the public not to fall for this scam. Visit www.sessa.org.za for more information or email ombudsman@sessa.org.za to report a scam.
