'My friend and I lost thousands of rand': Madonsela victim of WhatsApp scam

Former public protector Thuli Madonsela has warned of WhatsApp ID theft after allegedly being scammed by a person who hijacked her friend's profile.

Madonsela said she became aware of the scam after the scammer became “greedy and brazen”.

“My friend and I lost thousands of rand to a scammer who hijacked the WhatsApp profile of a mutual friend. He was pretending to be that friend.

“It was only when the scammer became so greedy and brazen that my son and I figured out the scam and warned other friends. WhatsApp ID theft or hacking is real,” she said.

“If people can be forced to recuse themselves because of someone claiming to be dishonestly acting on their behalf with no evidence implicating them, our judges would be in trouble. Worse is people can hack others’ WhatsApp IDs as many of us have been scammed by people masquerading as friends or family.”

Previously, parliament warned against a scam using the name of National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to defraud people.

Scammers allegedly send an e-mail from a Gmail account purporting to be that of Mapisa-Nqakula.

The profile picture for the WhatsApp account is that of National Council of Provinces chairperson Amos Masondo.

“The modus operandi is the scammer sends an e-mail from a Gmail account, appearing to be that of the speaker, asking potential victims for their WhatsApp contacts to initiate a conversation,” said parliament.

“Once the e-mail chat migrates to WhatsApp, the scammer, whose targets so far have been several staff members of parliament, requests potential victims to urgently purchase them an iTunes voucher. Anyone who receives such an e-mail is urged to ignore it.”

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