TELKOM has warned its customers to be vigilant of fraudsters after an imposter claiming to be a Telkom employee unsuccessfully tried to scam a local businesswoman.
TELKOM has warned its customers to be vigilant of fraudsters after an imposter claiming to be a Telkom employee unsuccessfully tried to scam a local businesswoman.
Di Emslie from Albany Pumps received a call from a man called "Bruce" who said he was from Telkom. Bruce informed her that auditors had discovered that Telkom had overcharged Albany Pumps by R2899 last year.
He asked for her bank details, saying he would pay the money into her account and call her on 31 July. He phoned back and said they had paid the money into the account.
"I thought that’s strange, I hadn’t noticed," Emslie said. Bruce then phoned her again saying he had made a mistake by paying R59 000 into her account.
"Alarm bells went off. I sensed a problem and said no, I’ve heard that before somewhere and asked him to tell me more. He then quickly said goodbye and put the phone down," Emslie said.
"I think he was about to give me his bank details and ask me to transfer the R59 000 back to him," said Emslie. "I was caught out two years ago – someone else said they had overpaid me by R10 000 and I paid them."
Emslie then contacted her bank manager and a cheque for R59 000 had been deposited into her account from a Transvaal branch code. She suspects that the cheque is a counterfeit and that it will most likely bounce.
Scam alert
Emslie’s bank manager said that her case was the third incident he had heard about in the area.
"These people are clever. They are in the Transvaal area and they know it takes three or four days to clear and they hope that people are trusting enough to pay them before a cheque is cleared," she said.
In May this year, fraudsters disguised themselves as the CEO of Telkom and attempted to pull off a cheque scam.
Thokozani Mvelase, executive for the Telkom Assets and Revenue Protection Services, said that the scam artists informed clients that Telkom’s banking details had changed and requested that they deposit their payments into a falsified account.
"To ensure that our customers do not fall victim to these fraudsters, I would like to urge the public to be extremely vigilant, especially if they receive unknown cheque deposits into their bank accounts," said Mvelase.
"Telkom reimbursements are not handled in this manner. In the event of a credit, Telkom passes it to the next month’s account," he added.
Contact Telkom’s fraud hotline on 0800 124 000 or approach the nearest police station to report any fraudulent activities.
