Captain Stephen Maluleka
The Rietgat SAPS would like to warn the community and the visitors in the the Rietgat’s policing precinct about conmen and women who are defrauding unsuspecting buyers into buying vehicles that do not exist.
This comes after a spike in the number of cases that have been opened at the station where complainants say they were scammed thousands of rands while attempting to buy vehicles they have seen advertised online.
Most “potential buyers” are duped into making electronic payments of vehicles they have never physically seen or touched, while others at least saw them but never got to drive them. These con artists lures their prey to taverns, malls, traffic intersections while waiting for ‘their vehicles’ to be delivered or taken for a car wash, tyre change or refilling of fuel.
One of the victims a few weeks ago saw an advertisement of a VW Polo on Facebook Marketplace sold by a ‘Sam Mashaba’, and he contacted him and drove to a tavern in Block R where there were four other unknown men and one of them had ‘papers’ of the car. After seeing the vehicle, the victim was satisfied with the condition and electronically deposited money which was ‘discounted’ by R3000. As they were still talking one of the four men took the vehicle under a guise of going to fill up fuel and never came back and subsequently ‘Sam’ also disappeared into the wilderness much to the surprise of the victim.
As the Rietgat SAPS, we would like to send a strong message to the entire community especially those who have resigned, retired or those who have saved their hard earned money for years to desist from such transactions in some taverns or dodgy places.
The SAPS urge the community to visit accredited dealerships if they want to purchase vehicles. As the SAPS we would also like to assure those who have fallen victim that the long arm of the law cannot be evaded forever, and will soon close the net on the suspects. Community members are also urged to be vigilant on things that are too good to be true. If your gut feel tells you that something could go wrong listen to it avoid being a victim of scammers.