TYPICAL TACTICS

THE LAPTOP

A few years ago, Joan* advertised a laptop on Gumtree for R6000. She got a message from a man, who then sent his ‘brother’ to inspect it. He liked it and called the man who contacted Joan to discuss the specs.

‘The man said he’d transfer the money into my account,’ Joan says. ‘The EFT confirmation looked just like proof of payment from Absa. So his brother left with the laptop.’ Two days later there was still no money in her account and they had disappeared.

THE iPHONE

Adam* recently advertised his iPhone 8 on the Classifieds page of a reputable Mac store. Someone contacted him via the site and he accepted the offer. The ‘buyer’ then promptly emailed a proof of payment PDF and Adam received an SMS, both of which looked like they had come from Absa. The money even reflected on Adam’s bank statement. Done deal, right? Wrong.

Adam just knew that something wasn’t right. ‘The guy didn’t have a WhatsApp account nor a Facebook profile that I could see,’ he says. ‘The proof of payment looked handmade and there was no transaction reference number.’ Absa confirmed it was a fake payment notification – the old logo had been used on the PDF and there were grammatical errors in the SMS.

Also, Adam’s statement showed that a ‘cheque deposit’ had been made. ‘If you see this but you received a proof of payment that says “EFT” or “internet transfer”, it’s a scam,’ he says. ‘It looks like the money is in your account, so you release the goods. But the cheque bounces and they’re gone.’

THE FLAT

Riedwaan has been flogging goods online for years and has heard it all. In 2009, he was relocating to Cape Town and looking for a flat to rent. He came across an ad on Gumtree for a beachfront apartment in Sea Point. ‘The ad was well written and it said this person was going on missionary work,’ Riedwaan says. ‘I was a bit suspicious but my partner was convinced, so we made the deposit to secure the flat. Still, I asked a friend to check the place out as it sounded too good to be true.’ And it was. Turned out, the flat wasn’t for rent – there were people living in it!

More recently, he advertised a few miscellaneous items on Gumtree, Marketplace and OLX. The scammers, he says, responded in droves. ‘They would say they’re in Nigeria, and want to use PayPal, Western Union or MoneyGram to pay you.’

THE CAR

‘I’d bought and sold many things on Gumtree and never had a problem,’ says Michael*. ‘It’s where I found my car in the first place. When I purchased it in 2010, the seller and I signed a sales agreement, I transferred the cash and he gave me the car. Maybe that was okay eight years ago…’

This time, a ‘polite’ man contacted Michael via Whatsapp and told him his son needed a car to get to and from varsity. ‘It was a believable story. The son, well spoken and well groomed, test-drove the car, and phoned his father to tell him he liked it. The man then SMSed proof of payment from Standard Bank. I also got an SMS from my bank that the funds had gone into my account. We signed a sales agreement, I scanned the boy’s ID and a utility bill, and we filled in the transfer papers. I gave him the registration papers and he left with the car.’

The next day Michael got an SMS that R7000 had been deposited into his account with the reference ‘medication’. The same man then called to say the payment was an error and asked Michael to return the money as it was meant for a doctor who was performing surgery on his daughter.

That’s when Michael realised something was terribly amiss. He said he’d EFT the amount when it cleared but the man wouldn’t part with bank details. ‘He got aggressive, and demanded I do a cellphone transfer via iMali. I refused. So he threatened to cancel payment on the car.’ Michael called Standard Bank’s fraud division – there was no account. He was being extorted, his car was gone and he was out of pocket. ‘I opened a case, and the cops told me up to two people a day were coming in with similar stories!’