Police warn public ‘hoaxers on the prowl’
As the festive season swiftly approaches, people are more than ever eager to make money to prepare for a Merry Christmas and welcome the New Year with their pockets filled.
The police have issued a public warning, especially to those in Metshelo savings groups, to heighten their vigilance as it is that time of the year when hoaxers go on the prowl with the intent to defraud them.
Director of Crime Intelligence, Nunu Lesetedi told The Monitor that the police have started to receive reports from the public after falling prey to scammers claiming to double or grow their money.
He said the festive season is fast approaching and everyone wants to celebrate the festive season loaded with cash hence they plead with the public not to fall for fraudsters’ tactics to con them out of their hardearned cash amid a rise in scams.
“The festive season is fast approaching. Everyone is eager to make money in order to celebrate the festive season with their friends and families. Even the unemployed will do everything to have money hence pleading with people to be on the lookout and avoid falling victim to false prophets and other criminals,” he said.
Lesetedi further stated that despite the police’s efforts in the past to sensitise the public about the tactics that fraudsters employ when luring people into losing their hardearned cash, most continue to fall for their tricks. The senior police officer feared the time to share Metshelo dividends is fast approaching and some of the metshelo treasurers might fall prey to these fraudsters. Lesetedi said usually these fraudsters spend the whole day patrolling malls looking for victims to pounce on and con them out of their cash.
“The public should know that no one can increase anyone’s money unless they save that money at the bank hence people should not fall prey to such old tactics. As the police, we are worried that despite our efforts, people continue to lose large sums of money at the hands of fraudsters. Usually, the people who claim to have powers to increase the money are the ones who need that money the most looking at their appearance,” Lesetedi said.
He said they have observed that the majority of Batswana have the habit of believing just about anything a stranger says to them. Lesetedi added that more often the criminals apply the same techniques that they would have sensitised the public on, something that demonstrates that people take the police efforts lightly.
Moreover, Lesetedi said some fraudsters claim to be prophets scamming people out of their monies under the guise that they were blessings so they (prophets) would claim to heal them and be paid for it.
He encouraged the public to always demand evidence if one claims to be a prophet or has any gifts of increasing money because unemployment has pushed a lot of people to get involved in criminal activities.