With the festive season around the corner, South African consumers have been warned to hold tight to their year-end bonuses as syndicates of scammers are working overtime and have devised creative ways to get them to part with their hard-earned cash.
A forensic investigation company called Bizz Tracers have cautioned consumers to be wary of people who call and claim to represent cellphone services providers, giving away airtime or data.
Bizz Tracers’ senior forensic investigator Calvin Rafadi said consumers must be careful and not give away personal information to strangers on the phone as this is the favourite modus operandi of the scammers, to pretend to unsuspecting people that they are giving away something for free.
“What the syndicates normally do is that they will give you a call, and then say you have won data or airtime of a specific amount. Then they will send you airtime of that particular amount. Once you receive the airtime they can even call you doing a follow-up asking if you are happy about the airtime.
“But now they will ask you questions like who were the last five people that you called? Then once you give them that information, later they call customer care of your cell phone provider and ask to perform a sim card swap providing the service provider with the five numbers you gave them.
“With your number now they will be able to extort money from people who call you claiming that you had an emergency and that you need medical care by asking people to send e-wallets.
“They will now have access to use your sim card. They go as far as calling the banks because cellphone numbers are linked to banks and claim to have forgotten their bank pin numbers, once the banks give them the pin, then they are able to activate internet banking and have access to transact in your account,” Rafadi said.
Rafadi said the syndicates are very active since the festive season has started and reiterated that people mustn’t share personal details with strangers on the phone.
“They know people have got bonuses and expect some monies from stokvel clubs etc. People mustn’t fall for the trap of people calling them and asking for details about their call records, and what kind of cellphone they are using because they have won airtime.
“I would like to stress that, if you have really won airtime, you will just receive an SMS from your service provider about the airtime you have won. You will never receive a call where people will be asking for your details.
“In the past people have been warned about giving out their Identity numbers. But this syndicate is different in that they don’t even ask for it. So people must just be cautious and never give out their information. They rather go to the service provider shops or to the banks to verify everything if they receive suspicious calls,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Special Investigating Unit recently announced a partnership with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to curb fraud, corruption, and cyber-related crimes in the country.
