Scam Alert SA0715
"Customer" scamming supplier
This was brought to our attention last month, but being a case under investigation it remained unpublished due to the threats made by the scammer to the supplier concerned. At this stage the supplier wish to remain anonymous for safety reasons.
The incident was reported on 12 June 2019 and the “scammed customer” in question remain a thread to our industry today.
Supplier Testimony
A man with a foreign African accent is trying to scam us out of R13500 which he alleges he paid to us.
He contacted our offices on Monday morning insisting we deliver a 6m unit to him as he paid us R13500 including VAT and transport for a 6mGP unit. He refused to give us his name or any other particulars and threatened us with violence if we do not comply with his demands.
We contacted our attorneys who traced the person, contacted him and explained that he did not deal with our company – he then whatsapped a proof of payment in the name of the person to whom he had paid the money to at a banking institution that we do not bank with to our attorneys but were unable or unwilling to provide our attorneys with a quote/proforma from the alleged container seller company.
Our attorneys explained to him verbally and in writing that he did not deal with us but a third party who defrauded him and that he should contact yourselves and the police to report the fraud.
Subsequently he sent my attorneys a voicenote threatening our company, its employees, the attorney firm and their employees.
We took the proof that we had – our documentation, his voicenote and the WhatsApp he sent with the alleged fraudster’s bank account went to the police to lay a charge against him and the police advised that they will call him and explain it is a case of mistaken identity. A Captain at the police station subsequently called him, explained the situation and he seemed satisfied with the explanation given.
Just after we arrived home from the police station he called me and threatened me again with violence and stated he is not scared of the police and he will not go to the police and we must pay him the money.
The following day he sent another voicenote stating that he does not care for the police and that he wants the money in his account, threatening our attorneys with violence if our attorneys do not pay him the money.
Our attorney laid a charge against him at the police station – Case Number CAS217/6/2019.
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