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There are two things you can be sure of.

The sun will rise tomorrow, and at some point in your life, someone will try to scam you.

We’ve all received an email or text message with the excellent news that we’re about to inherit or have won millions, which will be deposited directly into our accounts if we’re willing to pay a small fee.

If you’ve seen this sort of thing and ignored it, you probably weren’t the intended target of the scam.

Scammers go after some of the most vulnerable in society, such as the lonely, financially unstable, or financially ill-informed.

IOL compiled a list of the 20 most common scams doing the rounds in South Africa at the moment.

We picked five of the most deplorable.

Fake Real Estate Agents

Selling or buying property isn’t simple which is why we bring in real estate agents to do the job for us.

Unfortunately, there are those out there ready to jump in and take advantage of those with little knowledge of how the market works, by offering to facilitate the entire transaction. They will typically prepare fake contracts asking ‘clients’ to deposit large sums of money to serve as a security deposit on the property.

The money never makes it to the seller’s account but they do receive a pop-up notification from someone claiming to be the buyer.

Then the scammer vanishes, cash in hand, never to be seen or heard from again.

Stick to reputable estate agents to avoid falling into this trap.

Online dating scams

This scam predates the pandemic – Carte Blanche looked into it early last year – but it has become easier to execute as virtual dating became more prominent over the course of the pandemic. With people unable to leave their homes, much of their interaction with prospective partners happened online.

Scammers will target lonely people by building a relationship with them, before asking for money. The transactions will start out small (cash for airtime or data) and progressively grow, until the victim is depositing large sums of money into the scammer’s account (allegedly for petrol or a flight to meet in person, in many cases). The scammer then vanishes, leaving the victim out of pocket.

Your best bet is to refuse to pay the person that you’re talking to. If they disappear after that, or are persistent, you know that they were trying to scam you.

Lottery winners

Almost everyone has received a text at some point telling them that they’ve won millions, from an unrecognisable number.

The text usually ends with instructions to call a number to secure the winnings. Phone that number and you’ll be asked to make a deposit which seems relatively small compared to the ‘winnings’, for ‘tax purposes’.

As soon as the money clears in the scammer’s account, they’re gone.

If you receive a message that sounds too good to be true, it probably is. If you think you may have won the lottery, check your ticket against the numbers. And, if the message says that it’s from your bank, phone them to confirm and alert them to the scam.

Used vehicle scams

First-time car buyers usually fall victim to the scam.

A car will be advertised in newspapers, or on online sites and social media pages. The buyer then unknowingly ends up with a car that was previously written off.

Possibly through bribery, corruption, or fraud, the registration code of the car hasn’t been changed to reflect this.

This means that you could be driving away in a car that you’ve paid far too much for, and that is potentially unroadworthy and dangerous. If you want to hang on to it, you could see yourself spending more than it’s worth to repair.

To avoid this scam, make sure that you’re using a reputable used car dealer, instead of risking a sketchy online sale.

Compromising pictures/ media scam

The victim will receive a text from an unknown number telling them that the scammer has naked pictures or compromising videos of them, which, if they don’t pay up, will find their way to social media.

For a fee, the scammer says that they will make the problem ‘go away’.

There are new laws that could help you out if you find yourself in this situation. The Cybercrimes and Cybersecurity Bill, says that sending a message containing an intimate image (this would include pictures and video) of a person without their express permission is a criminal offence.

Reporting the scammer to the police for intent to violate this law is your best bet.

There are 15 more common scams that you can read about here.

Stay vigilant, and when in doubt, follow that gut feeling.

[source:iol]