The Southern African Fraud Prevention Service has warned consumers of an advance-fee scam in which skelms are falsely presenting themselves as SAFPS representatives.
Chief executive Manie van Schalkwyk said the SAFPS was concerned about the scam doing the rounds on social media and urges mense to be vigilant.
He said the advance-fee scam was a form of fraud and a common trick that tried to lull consumers into a false sense of confidence, reports IOL.
The scams typically involve promising the potential victim a significant amount of kroon in return for a small upfront payment.
The scammer assures the victim that the payment will be used to obtain a larger sum of money. But the geld never materialises.
How it works is that the skelms approach mense via WhatsApp pretending to be a SAFPS representative.
They promise compensation if you have been a victim of fraud.
You must then pay R950 in order to receive a larger amount of money in the form of compensation for being a victim of fraud.
The scammer provides falsified proof of payment from Capitec which shows the compensation allegedly received by other victims of fraud.
A falsified letter from the SAFPS is also used.
Van Schalkwyk said the SAFPS does not operate in this manner.
“Should you receive a letter, a call, an SMS, an email, or a WhatsApp message soliciting payment in the name of the SAFPS, please do not comply with the requests and demands as this is a completely fake initiative designed to cause you to lose money to fraudsters.
“Alert the SAFPS of this contact immediately.”