A Mitchells Plain pensioner wants to send out a warning to the public after she was conned into buying over R2000 worth of clothes for skelms posing as Sassa officials.
Angelina Daniels, 71, said she was approached by a woman and a man on Monday afternoon who said they were from Sassa and that they could help clear her debts.
“They were by my neighbour across the street but he turned them away so they came to me and said they’re from Sassa and there is a new thing from the government that can wipe the debts of pensioners,” she explains.
“They asked me for the papers of all my bills and the lady had a massive stack of bills from other people on her clipboard.”
The Rocklands resident says the man, known only as Cedric, and woman, Jolene Damos, came to her house at 8.55am and left with her papers, only to come back at 9.15am, telling her to go with them to their office to sign documents.
“We drove to Westgate Mall and Jolene went with me inside to Absa bank,” says Angelina.
“She took my credit card and put it in the ATM but there is no money in there, then she said I must get balance sheets, so I went into the bank to ask for it.
“While I was waiting, she knocked on the window to say I must come outside and then she asked me if I had any accounts, so we went into Miladys and she started taking clothes, telling me that I must buy because the debt is going to be cleared.
“When we came to the till, she had clothes for her that came to over R2000, and I had nothing for me but I signed to buy it on my account.”
“Afterwards we went to Woolworths but she did not want to come in, so I just went to get a balance slip and then she said they are taking me to Edgars in Promenade.
“We got onto AZ Berman Drive and Cedric pulled over and Jolene said I must go across the road and go get a balance by Edgars and she will get me afterwards.
“I ended up having to take a taxi home because they left, that was when I realised this was a scam.”
Angelina’s daughter, Judy, said she called her mother while they were in Miladys and even spoke to Jolene.
“When I spoke to her on the phone, she just said I must not worry but I think she got scared and then they decided to just leave my mother,” she said.
“We went to the police but we did not get a case number because they say they are still looking into it.”
When the Daily Voice contacted Sassa spokesperson Shivani Wahab, she said she was on leave and there was no one else to handle media queries.