WARNING ABOUT CRIMINAL SCAM
On Saturday morning a Doringkloof resident received a phone call on the landline from a “brother “of their domestic employee, informing the resident that the employee had died in an accident the previous night (Friday evening). Asking to speak to the daughter resulted in an excuse that she too had died in the accident. After this the call was terminated. A cell phone call to the employee resulted in a “This number is currently not available”. Fortunately, a neighbor was able to make sure that the employee was OK by phoning a friend. It was also later found out that ‘someone’ from the cell phone company had phoned to say that there was a problem with the employee’s phone number and that she should switch it off for the week-end and sort it out on Monday.
Residents are warned that this is a scam and those falling for the sad news have paid the scammer hundreds if not thousands of Rand towards a fictitious funeral. Something to take note of is the fact that on Thursday, while the residents were out the employee received a landline phone call asking whether she was registered and what was her cell phone number so that they could phone later to check on whether she was indeed registered. The final part was when the caller asked whether she was happy with her employers. The feeling was that this was the initial call to set up the scam. Indeed, should a resident receive a landline call and on answering find that the caller has put the phone down without speaking could also be an indication of a possible scam.
Other than being careful with such calls, there appears that little can be done to stop this crime.
Be safe.
DNW TEAM
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