Alleged online crooks in court
ONLINE advertising site OLX has once again popped up in a case of alleged fraudsters who masqueraded as car salesmen on the website and defrauded their victims.
Vuyolwethu Nzulwana and Lindani Manqele appeared in the Johannesburg Commercial Crimes Court yesterday on fraud and money laundering charges for allegedly selling vehicles that did not exist to unsuspecting victims who fell for their scam.
Allegations are that they took pictures of cars parked on the streets, uploaded them, then advertised them on OLX saying they were for sale.
They allegedly also used the name of a legitimate motor dealership, saying they were in fact working for that company and selling the vehicles on their behalf.
One of the alleged victims who responded to the OLX adverts was Nomfundo Nyamakazi, from Grahamstown, who was keen on a BMW 2010 model advertised on OLX for R60 000 and being sold by Venter Motors, a dealership in Westonaria.
Nyamakazi contacted the seller, who identified himself as Welcome, and they chatted about the car.
She then flew to Johannesburg, where she made an EFT to a Capitec bank account on her arrival at the OR Tambo International Airport.
She then went to Venter Motors, but was informed that she had been defrauded.
It also turned out that Venter Motors was getting less than 10 calls per day from irate victims who wanted their cars or money back, because Nzulwana and Manqele allegedly had been using their company’s name to defraud people on OLX. When Nyamakazi called Welcome, he called her a fool for buying a car she had never seen.
Welcome also told Nyamakazi that now he had “eaten” her money, he wanted to sleep with her as well. He then burst out laughing. Nyamakazo opened a case and both Nzulwana and Manqele were later traced and arrested. They were charged with fraud and money laundering.
Yesterday, a shackled Manqele applied for bail in the Johannesburg Commercial Crimes Court.
Prosecutor Richard Tshabalala told the court Manqele was in fact Welcome and the one behind the scam. “Your source of income was OLX, you defrauded people. That’s how you got your income,” Tshabalala told him.
While still fielding hard questions from Tshabalala, Manqele started shivering, leaving the interpreter alarmed. He leaned against the witness box, just staring ahead and breathing heavily.
He was asked to sit down and the magistrate gave him her water.
When asked whether he was fine to proceed, he said he was. Tshabalala fired more questions at Manqele, asking him whether he was computer literate. Manqele said he was not.
When asked whether he had a computer, he said his lawyer advised him not to answer that question.
Tshabalala then asked Manqele to comment on the fact that a laptop and five phones were seized at the time of his arrest. He still declined to answer. “My attorney advised me not to say anything.”
The matter will be back in court on August 25.
In April, Cape Times sister paper The Star reported on how a couple determined to find people who defrauded them of thousands of rand on OLX managed to uncover the operations of a syndicate defrauding people selling items online.