The Municipality's Finance department was nearly scammed out of just over R46 000 by people who claim to be from Telkom.
The Municipality's Finance department was nearly scammed out of just over R46 000 by people who claim to be from Telkom.
The Finance department was requested to refund Telkom an amount that was paid into their account by mistake, which they later found out to be a scam.
The Finance department received a faxed document with the Telkom logo that stated finance was owed a refund for an overcharged telephone account for the amount of R2 840.60 according to their Audit report, but they had made a payment of R48 980.95 instead.
They said that this can be confirmed from finance's banking statements. They requested assistance from finance by deducting the refund of R2 840.60 and reversing the difference of R46 140.35 and make payment into their bank account.
According to Makana chief financial officer, Jackson Ngcelwane the money was paid into their account on Thursday 28 October and on the next day when everybody was rushed and preparing for the weekend, the fraudsters phoned every few minutes to find out if the money was refunded.
The caller kept on calling throughout the day even though he was told to be patient as there were a lot of payments to be processed. Ngcelwane said it was observed that these fraudsters knew that if the updated bank statement was checked on Monday, they would have seen that the funds were reversed by the bank on Friday, and taken out of their account again.
This is why they were rushing for the payment to be made on Friday before finance could pick it up on their bank statements. "What happens is that a cheque will be deposited into our account by a third party, knowing that there are no funds in his account to cover the amount of the cheque. The bank captures the deposit and our bank account increases. During the days that follow, the third party's bank says sorry, no funds available and returns the cheque. By the time the cheque bounces, or is returned as unpaid, we would have made the refund and the third party has left with our money. The bank has also taken the money out by reversing the deposit and we end up with a loss," he explained.
Finance staff members who authorise payment vouchers or signs cheques were warned to be on the lookout for scams such as these and that they should not to be rushed by anyone as these fraudsters rely on one to make a mistake.
Several things that were suspicious about this case:
– It was observed that they provided a cellphone and not landline number.
– The caller kept on calling throughout the day.
– The email address provided was strange. This person worked for Telkom, but his email address was not at telkomsa.net.
– The landline which was specified on the fax was a residential number and not a business one, and did not belong to Telkom.
– Telkom would not refund a credit by direct deposit or cheque – they would simply credit your account. Similarly, Telkom does not automatically refund a person the credit on his account, he has to ask them for a refund.
