On Friday evening we were phoned by our domestic worker’s son to say our domestic worker had been killed in a car accident and they needed money to get the body transported to her home town. Fortunately it is all a scam! Below are the details of the modus operandi so that the next person is not caught as well (although we did not lose any money, it was very traumatic).
1. Someone from UIF or Depart of Labour phones your landline during the day, during the week. If they get hold of your domestic worker they ask the following types of questions: a. How many children does the domestic worker have and what are their names b. How many years have they been working for you c. What is the ‘madam’s cell number 2. On a Friday after the above phone call the domestic worker is phoned by a cell phone provider instructing them to turn their phone off from 7pm Friday to 1pm Saturday saying there is a problem with their number and to solve the issue their phone must be switched off. 3. Friday evening in the middle of the night your phone will ring – on the other end is one of the domestic worker’s distraught children saying there has been an accident. Very emotional and no money is mentioned. 4. The phone will ring again early on Saturday morning (eg. 5am) with the same ‘son’. He is happy to give you his cell number so you can phone him back. He now has more details of the accident and now needs some money (R10 000) to transport the body back to the domestic’s home town. The money is required by some time that morning. 5. We phoned our domestic worker but it went straight to voice mail. At this stage we were getting a little suspicious because what they were saying just wasn’t adding up eg. they said the body was in the (non-existent) Delft morgue (Cape Town suburb). They got her home town wrong. They didn’t know who our domestic worker’s daughter was when I referred to her by her nick name, something a brother would know. When we started insisting to know where her body was the ‘son’ got quite angry saying his mother had worked for us for x years (see 1b above) and all they wanted was some help and all they were getting from us was questions, questions! The guilt was big, believe me, for doubting them in their hour of need! After finding an almost identical MO on IOL news website, we contacted the police. On Saturday just after 1pm our domestic worker phoned us back as when she had turned on her phone she saw umpteen missed calls from us. She was completely oblivious to it all. Part of the plan is to catch you off guard, calling you late at night with this terrible news, causing you to have a bad night’s sleep. Then calling you again early in the morning while you are still fuzzy after tossing and turning or being up all night and then laying a guilt trip (or the race card) on you. It also always happens on a weekend. Please tell your domestic workers or your children to NEVER give out ANY info over the phone. Any info about you or about them. All they must do is take the person’s name and number for you to phone them back (giving you an opportunity to verify they are legit). Cell phone providers will not tell you to turn your phone off for a certain period – this is a big warning bell! Our domestic worker is Xhosa so this bit is pertinent only to the Xhosa culture – she tells me that if she was dead a family delegation, which would not include the children, but uncles, brothers etc. will come to your house for a meeting to discuss if you could possibly help them financially. It would never be done over the phone and would never be necessary to have the money the morning after the accident. If anyone has any similar experience please contain Const. Johannes Tjiane on 083 766 9342 (this name was on the IOL website) who was very helpful. Keep safe. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Observatory Neighbourhood watch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/obsnw?hl=en.
