Creative Scammers Take Phones as ‘Collateral’, Sends Person on Errand and Disappear, Mzansi Shares Stories
- A creative scam involving fake money and running an errand seems to have affected tons of South Africans
- Social media user @Real_Stevemalt shared a picture of the fake money a person was given when sent on an errand for someone else
- The prey is told to leave their phone with the scammer and when they come back, the scammer and their belongings are gone
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@Real_Stevemalt shared a post about a common scam a lot of people have seemingly fallen prey to. According to commenters and the post shared, a person will ask you to run an errand with a wad of cash and leave your phone with them as collateral.
Upon return, the person who asked you to run an errand has left with your cellphone. You'll feel all good, thinking you have a massive amount of money in your hand. Only to find out that it was a fake R100 note covering a bunch of white paper coloured on the ends to resemble the R100.
Social media users shared stories about times that they and people they know have fallen for the creative scam and lost things like phones and even groceries.
Source: Twitter
With over 1 400 likes, the comments of similar experiences are filling up under the post:
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Social media users join in on the convo with their scam experiences
@fistos_fisto said:
"Happened to me in centurion lifestyle centre. They showed me fake diamonds and fake money. They took my P30."
@Catey_21 shared:
"This once happened to my flatmates back in varsity. She gave them her grocery money, phone and even fetched her laptop. Because they showed her a bag full of money. These people are using something for a person to give in like that."
@Ntsakol wrote:
"Welcome to Joburg. A job interview where you must leave all your belongings, bags, phones etc at reception and go to the 8th floor for the interview. When you come back down from an empty hall, the reception has vacated."
@josephmolehe responded with:
"I've never been scammed since been I've staying downtown in Hillbrow but got scammed in small town even today when I pass that town feel like to cry but ke R40k is gone."
@King_Jalala tweeted:
"I lost my Huawei P20 in 2020 exactly on this day (14/02/20) through this method. The phone had memories of my trip to Egypt. To this day I will never forget the guy hu robbed me. His face will never disappear."
@maleschuene added:
"It happened to me last month in Alexandra and that time I was going to work... I was left with fake notes. I literally gave them my phone."
Stunner opens up about R30k TikTok scam, SA appalled by trend: "People are so gullible"
In more news about scams, Briefly News previously reported that online scams are on the rise, with cybercriminals finding new and more advanced ways of conning unsuspecting and sometimes desperate people out of their money.
In an article titled 6 Common TikTok Scams To Be Aware of in 2021 by Payback Ltd – a company claiming to be one of the leading chargeback firms specialising in online trading scams – the most prevalent money-swindling tactics used by scammers on the video-focused social networking service are revealed.
In much the same way, a local Twitter user, @_Sanelle, brought the stark reality of internet crime into sharp focus by revealing that a colleague of hers had been scammed out of tens of thousands of rands on the popular short-form video-sharing app.
Source: Briefly News
