MOST South Africans, and that includes Garden Route residents, live in the hope that this year’s Fifa Soccer World Cup will be a great success. At the same time, certain folk are seeing the frenzy as an opportunity to grab extra cash for their own pockets.
It seems that a lot of people are forgetting the important aspect of safety during this time - South Africans from all walks of life tend to be vulnerable and exposed to crimes of all kinds as preparations continue for the world to descend on our beautiful country.
Competition seems rife in the growing phenomenon of electronic theft. Reports of various kinds of swindles surface almost every day, for example when people receive SMS messages to announce that they have won cash, supposedly paid into their bank accounts.
“I was informed that I had received R8 540 in my bank account,” says a recent Bitou victim. “I was shocked and happy at the same time, as I was in deep need of cash.”
She went to her bank to find out more and the bank provided details of the company that deposited the money. When she phoned them, she was told that she had entered a competition a long time ago and she was a winner
“My heart was pumping double-fast! I said yes, because I needed that money. They are very professional, these people, but said to me I was to first spend R1 000 with them on some World Cup-related premise, before the money could be released.”
She went back to the bank to borrow the money, and when the bank refused she didn’t give up, but tried to borrow R1 000 from her friends and family. “In my mind it was a small price to pay for the R8 540 I would receive,” she says.
Fortunately, she did not manage to raise the money and when she went back to the bank seven days later, she was in for a great disappointment: “I was shocked when they told me at the bank that my account had dropped back to only R20. I cried, but was also relieved that I had not lost R1 000 to these criminals.”
Be aware of the dangers we face now more than ever, and don’t become a bad World Cup statistic at the hand of shameless fraudsters.
