3 HELD IN R100,000 TOURIST ATM SCAM
4 ‘EC Tourism Board’ reflector jackets, 2 cars and R3,450 seized
Thieves posing as Eastern Cape tourism officials brazenly flagged down an Australian couple on the N2 near Mthatha, diverted them to an ATM and fleeced them of R96,000 at the weekend.
Police confirmed that a German tourist couple were also robbed there on Friday.
A private investigator (PI) hired by a leading Eastern Cape retail group, Western Gruppe, which has been trying to stop ATMs being robbed at its store entrances, said the German couple was duped out of R100,000. He asked not to be named.
Australian tourist Mark Hunter, 59, speaking to the Dispatch after he and his wife, Pauline Hunter, 52, were defrauded said: “We leave SA on Thursday. I won’t be coming back to the Transkei, I can tell you that.”
Hunter, a firefighter for the Victoria State Country Fire Authority, said he and Pauline, who works for Deakin University’s IT department, were flagged over on the N2 by people wearing reflector vests with the words “Eastern Cape Tourism Authority” emblazoned on their garments.
They were in their rental car driving between two cars when they were directed to pull over. He said they were told by the “officials” that they had to buy a voucher – only available at an ATM – “to get through some roadworks on to a tar road or something”.
Hunter said it became clear later that the two cars that had boxed him in were with the gang.
“They directed a few cars into the mall and those other cars were part of the scam.”
Hunter said at the ATM things got really “confusing” because eight people claiming to be “assisting” him were all talking English at the same time.
“All these men were saying what I had to do. They were all working together.”
He put his debit card into the machine, and it was swallowed. He then put his credit card in. No “voucher” was available.
He suspects they were iden- tified as tourists by the bar code on their windscreen and the rental company’s registration sticker on the Rav4 vehicle.
The Daily Dispatch at the weekend broke the story on a highly active band of crooks who, according to Western Gruppe, was taking as much as R100,000 a day.
Western Gruppe, which operates 29 stores in the province, said Mthatha was particularly badly hit. Their PI confirmed the gang had been ordering tourists to purchase “vouchers” for a "tourism fee" and a "toll fee" .
The Australian couple, left without their credit card, have sought refuge at a relative’s home in Port Edward. “We are waiting for an emergency credit card to be sent from Australia because we don’t have an address.
“The card has to be sent to an address. Our plans have been badly interrupted.”
Hunter said they’d landed in Cape Town on August 30 and toured Cape Town before “working our way up the coast”. They had enjoyed the Kruger National Park.
“Initially we had planned to stay in Durban and visit other places that side.”
Hunter said he was not hopeful that the emergency card would arrive by Wednesday.
“We were supposed to drive to Cape Town, then get a connecting flight to Joburg and leave for Australia, but we can’t do that. We are trying to fly from Durban to Joburg due to this.”
On Monday, Mthatha police spokesperson Captain Dineo Koena announced a “major breakthrough” with arrests of three men on Sunday. They were seized in Ngolo locality by Mthatha K9 officers.
Koena said the Australian couple were driving along the N2 when they were pulled over by unknown men in a silver VW Polo, one of them wearing a reflector jacket with the insignia “Eastern Cape Tourism Board”. “They demanded a tourism voucher, claiming the victims should pay a ‘tourism fee’.
“They took them to the ATM where their three bank cards were retained. After the suspects fled the victims noticed that money was gone.”
Koena said the arrested suspects were nabbed with four “Eastern Cape Tourism Board” reflector jackets, a receipt book and R3,450 in cash. Two vehicles were confiscated. She confirmed a German couple were also robbed but could not provide more detail without speaking to the investigating officer
“I commend them for this swift arrest,” said Mthatha acting cluster commander Brigadier Nomawethu Makonza.