Louise Bouwer from Port Edward recently had a cellphone stolen somewhere in a shopping mall in Shelly Beach. She replaced her phone and made arrangements to do a sim swap. Her son Louis received a call last Friday and he recognised his mother’s number.
The man on the phone asked how much the owner would pay to have the phone returned. Louis answered R200. The man laughed at him and said the information on the phone was worth at least R9 000. Louis was shocked and told the man to…’take a walk!’
A few days later, one of Louise’s good friends received a call from an Indian sounding man, telling her there was a problem with her banking app and she needed to take various steps to stop fraud.
She had read Louise’s story on the chat group and refused. The call was shut down very quickly. It seems that this same man who had attempted to bribe Louis was using her phone contacts to try to defraud as many people as possible.
It serves as a warning to be extra vigilant. “One can only assume that this is a syndicate that has gone a step further, no longer just stealing phones but using them to bribe the owners for huge sums of money. It is a disgrace,” said Louise.
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