Sophisticated SAA impersonation scam drains Empangeni woman’s savings

Empangeni woman loses savings in South African Airways scam run by a person or persons purporting to be from the national carrier

3 hours ago

Tamlyn Cramer 4 minutes read

After losing her life savings to an online fraudster, one Empangeni resident is on a mission to warn others of the scam she so easily fell victim to.

The scam, run by a person or persons purporting to be from South African Airways (SAA), appears to be sophisticated, requiring no passwords, pins or security codes, draining the hapless victims’ bank accounts in minutes.

ALSO READ: Warning of WhatsApp scams

Speaking to the ZO on condition of anonymity, the Empangeni victim outlined the scam in detail, repeating several times that at no stage did she give away any personal details.

“It was a Thursday or Friday when I went onto the SAA website to look at prices of flights to Cape Town,” she said.

“Shortly afterwards, I received a WhatsApp call from someone saying they were from SAA.

“The WhatsApp profile picture was the SAA logo and it looked legit.

“The caller knew my name, gender, age and ID number, and went on to say SAA was offering great discounts on flights.

“All I had to do was download and install the SAA app from the Google Play Store to activate those specials.

“I had the phone on speaker and was working while talking to the caller, with a colleague sitting nearby. When I went onto the Play Store, there were two SAA apps. I asked the caller which one, he said the first, and talked me through the process.

“At no stage did I give away any personal details, and at no stage did I feel uncomfortable.

Frozen screen red flag

“But when the installation process of the app remained at 13% on my screen and he said it was at 97% on his side, that’s when an alarm bell went off.

“I said to my colleague, ‘I wonder if this is a scam.’ I tried to end the call but that didn’t work, and tried everything, including switching off my phone, to stop what was going on, but nothing worked. It was as if I had no control over my phone, it was just a frozen screen.

“He got annoyed and asked if I was touching the screen, to which I responded I wasn’t, but carried on trying to hang up, to no avail.”

The woman said it was only after he had finished what he was doing, that she regained control of her phone, which is when 19 SMS banking notifications were delivered.

“I didn’t even open those notifications, I phoned the fraud department of Absa Bank straight away and told them I thought I had been scammed,” she said.

“They confirmed that it appeared that I had been scammed, and notified me of the amount of money that had been transferred out of my accounts.

“My knees went weak and I felt sick. It was every cent to my name. My credit card had been maxed out and the money transferred to my cheque account.

“Money in two other accounts was also transferred to my cheque account, and the total was transferred to a beneficiary the fraudsters had set up.

“I don’t have a lot of money, but what I do have, I worked hard for.”

The woman opened a case of fraud at Empangeni SAPS, and praised the helpfulness and professionalism from the police officers dealing with her matter.

“The people in the Absa fraud department were also incredibly helpful. I don’t know what would have happened had the police and Absa staff not been so helpful in my time of great distress. I cannot fault them for the way in which my case was handled from start to finish.”

Positive outcome

The woman said the 20-day wait while Absa carried out their own internal investigations was excruciating, but could not contain her relief when she was notified that all her money would be reimbursed.

“I was one of the lucky ones. Every cent that was stolen was reimbursed by Absa,” she said.

Other victims have not been so fortunate, however, with the Bedfordview Edenvale News reporting about a retired school teacher who lost R1.2m in the same scam.

According to the report, her bank offered a R20 000 ‘gesture of goodwill’ which she declined and is working with Primerio to fight the matter through legal channels.

The Empangeni victim said experts in cybercrime have told her it was likely malware that had been used to gain access to her banking app.

This would have been installed on her phone when she downloaded the fraudulent SAA app, giving the scammer full access to her device.

“A word of warning to everybody: never click on any links that you receive via email, SMS, WhatsApp or any other platform,” advised the woman.

“If deals look too good to be true, they usually are, so stay away!”

SAA was contacted for comment but none was forthcoming at the time of going to print.

However, a 20 August X post by SAA warned customers to be alert to fraudulent websites and messages impersonating SAA.

“SAA urges customers to remain vigilant following reports of a cybercrime campaign in which individuals are impersonating SAA,” reads the post.

“Customers are urged not to click on suspicious links, download applications, or provide personal, banking, password or any other sensitive information in response to unsolicited SMSes, WhatsApp messages, emails or social media posts claiming to be from SAA.

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