The national Department of Public Works, earlier today Tuesday, 15 February 2011 foiled another attempt to defraud a member of the public by a gang of unscrupulous thieves.
Our experience shows that the modus operandi was simple. These thieves posed as authentic employees of the department, ordering goods from the unsuspecting suppliers, often using bogus letterheads with the departmental logo downloaded from the internet, only for them to disappear with the goods and with no payment forthcoming.
A young entrepreneur came to deliver a batch of computer equipment worth R63 000 to an alleged employee of the department. But the wide-awake entrepreneur realised that there was a scam on the go when he realised that the person who was coming to accept the goods was not the same person who was mentioned on the invoice. In fact, the invoice was issued under the name of a former Director-General of the department who left more than three years ago. The entrepreneur then alerted the departmental security who took the goods whilst the fraudster vanished in the heavy city traffic.
This incident is the latest in a string of such fraudulent incidents that the department has had to deal with whereby criminals perpetrated fraud against unsuspecting members of the public. The challenge was that members of the public were extremely gullible and quickly fell for this scam when they were told about a non-existent or fraudulent business deal.
The national Department of Public Works was in the process of launching an awareness campaign to inform and sensitise the public of South Africa to this growing fraud that was perpetrated against the unsuspecting citizens. The department calculates that close to R1 million has been stolen from the public since last year using the fraudulent documents of the department through this fraudulent orders scam.
Once again the public was urged not to be trusting of anyone who promised a good business deal, especially if a supplier has never applied for any business deal with the department. Service providers must never agree to deliver goods out in the street or in private houses goods that are purported to be bought by the State.
Thami Mchunu
Tel: 012 337 2039
Cell: 079 519 6997
