Caterers beware – New order scam is making the rounds

A businesswoman has warned of alleged fraudsters operating locally after she was almost the victim of a scam.

A man, claiming to be from Love Life, contacted the businesswoman requesting a quotation for catering for a meeting of 80 people in a hall in Umkomaas.

As she would normally do, the woman contacted the potential client to get his e-mail address in order to send him the quotation.

The man requested that the quotation be sent via an SMS.

However, the SMS was too long to go through, and an MMS also failed to go through. She then contacted the man once again, who told her to provide him with her banking details via the ‘phone.

Telephonically, she gave him the details and quoted an amount of R14 400 for the catering.

That same afternoon she received a payment notification from ABSA for an amount of R19 400.

This aroused the woman’s suspicion as she does not bank with ABSA. “At first I wondered why I would receive a notification from ABSA when my bank is FNB. When the man called me and asked if I had received the money, I told him no.

However, I suspected that something was amiss and went to my bank to check if the funds had indeed been deposited, but was told that the funds were not in my account.

This confirmed my suspicion that the man wanted to con me into refunding him the extra amount of R5,000. When he called again, I told him I had been to the bank and that is when he cut the call.

This confirmed my suspicion,” said the woman.

At one stage the woman says, she received calls from two different men using the same name and the men were always in a hurry to conclude the calls.

The man has not been in touch with her since, and she has informed the police of the incident and warns other businesspeople to be wary of such fraudsters.