The City of Cape Town has warned tourists that a permit is not needed when walking on the city’s promenade after a cloning device was confiscated from scammers in Sea Point.
The scam, according to locals, first appeared in 2024 but has recently resurfaced.
With the tourist season starting, scammers are out in force.
Jacques Weber, chairperson of the Sea Point City Improvement District, said scammers seem to be on the increase.
“You have criminals in the more touristy areas like the promenade dressed in official-looking clothes. They then tell tourists they need a permit to walk or park where they are. They obviously don’t have one, so they are told they must pay a fine. The scammers take the unsuspecting tourists to a scanner fastened to a wall and tell them to swipe their cards to pay their fines,” said Weber.
However, the scanner is not a card machine.
“It is a card cloner that works through the scammer’s phone. The tourist thinks he is making a payment, and in the confusion, they watch the PIN he or she enters. When the scammers walk away, they have a cloned card and the PIN.
“It basically happens in all the tourist areas, also in places like Mouille Point and Camps Bay. But there are hot spots, like under the Greenpoint Underpass and Beach Road, near the market, and also on the Sea Point side of the road.”
Weber believes it is difficult to say how many people have been caught out by the scam.
“The victims are tourists who don’t make cases because they are leaving the country or province. They are more freaked out than anything and struggle to trust people who want to help. It probably happens two to three times a week across many areas, as I see them being reported in various crime groups I am on,” he said.
“You must remember that Cape Town has about 5-million people in the city during the tourist season. That is a lot of targets for the criminals.”
The most recent incident happened two weeks ago, but this time two vigilant security officers managed to recover the scammers’ device.
“Security officers Eddie Rasmeni from Securus Security Services and Malizole Manasthe from SRG Security ... were on patrol when they received information about scammers operating in Hall Road, Sea Point,” said Weber.
“The suspects were reportedly attempting to deceive members of the public by claiming that a permit was required either to walk in a specific area or to pay for parking in a side street.
“The officers responded immediately, but the suspects had already fled the scene. In their haste, however, they abandoned the device used to facilitate the fraudulent activity. This was recovered by the officers and handed over to Sea Point SAPS for further investigation,” said Weber.
“There have been a spate of scams using devices resembling a credit card pay machine which have been found stuck on various buildings including bus shelters,” said Heather Tager, chief operations officer of the Sea Point City Improvement District.
“These scammers dress as if they are security personnel. They have also been known to tell people, especially tourists, that they need a permit to enter certain areas,” she said.
“At first this was occurring predominantly in the Green Point area, close to the V&A Waterfront. Now that the silly season is approaching, I predict an increase,” said Tager.
Alderman JP Smith, the City of Cape Town’s mayoral committee member for safety and security, told the Sunday Times they are aware of the scam and reiterated that a permit is not needed to walk on the promenade.
“However, we encourage those who may have fallen prey to this scam, or if they are approached, to report it to the Public Emergency Communication Centre on 021 480 7700,” said Smith.
“I want to encourage accommodation establishments to reach out to the city or the CCID should they need promotional material to create awareness around tourist safety.”
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