Johannesburg - November has seen a spike in scams related to government departments. Today, another racket was exposed by the Department of International Relations and Co-operation.
Dirco appealed to the public to be cautious of a legalisation scam in which the department’s name was being used to solicit money for legalisation services.
"Legalisation services provided by Dirco are free of charge, which include legalising official (public) documents executed within South Africa for use outside the country by means of an apostille certificate or a certificate of authentication, and providing customers with guidelines to obtain the correct signatures or documents if documents submitted are incorrect or incomplete, amongst others," said the department.
Earlier in the month in the Free State, the Department of Employment and Labour warned existing and potential suppliers against scammers issuing fraudulent purchase orders.
The department said it had noted with concern reports of scammers posing as officials who were contacting suppliers and requesting quotations on various items. They would then issue fake purchase orders for the items to the unsuspecting suppliers.
"Regrettably, some suppliers have fallen victim to this scam and unknowingly delivered the items to scammers without (first receiving) payment," added the department.
They urged suppliers to be on guard for fraudsters to avoid falling victim to such scams. Signs of a scam included poorly written emails with grammatical errors containing contact numbers not associated with the department.
In another hustle during the month, the SA Reserve Bank warned of a scam in which fraudsters circulated fraudulent tenders in the bank’s name.
The modus operandi of the fraudsters was to send an email and attach tender documents to it calling on prospective suppliers to bid for 300 units of MRTX flashlights, which are fake.
"All SARB email addresses end with ‘resbank.co.za’. Suppliers are advised to scrutinise all bids that they receive, including the email addresses of the SARB buyers, as well as other details of the SARB," said the bank.
The bank also said that all procurement at the SARB was centralised within its procurement division.
"If a potential supplier is unsure about a tender purporting to be from the SARB, they are encouraged to contact the SARB’s procurement support desk at [email protected]," the bank said.
Scammers had even found sneaky ways to use the name of the Speaker of the National Assembly, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.
Earlier this month, the public was warned about a scam in which her name had been used to defraud victims. The scam used an email address and WhatsApp number purporting to be that of Mapisa-Nqakula.
"The scammer sends an email from a Gmail account appearing to be that of the Speaker. The email asks potential victims for their WhatsApp contacts so that a conversation can be started.
"Once the email chat migrates to WhatsApp, the scammer, whose targets thus far have been several staff members of Parliament, then requests potential victims to urgently purchase them an iTunes voucher," said a parliamentary statement.
The statement went on to say that the WhatsApp number used by the fraudsters bore the name of Mapisa-Nqakula, but the profile picture was that of National Council of Provinces chairperson Amos Masondo.
"Anyone who receives such an email is urged to ignore it," the parliamentary statement said.
The Star