Bargain or scam? Helen Zille warns against fake online stores

We all love a good bargain, but scammers with “legitimate” social media business accounts use these to lure unsuspecting shoppers and rip them off.

DA federal chairperson Helen Zille had a bitter experience last month after she was scammed in a call with a fake bank consultant. The politician has since cautioned the public about fraudsters and the tricks they use to scam people.

This week, Zille warned about fake online stores using “bargain-basement prices” to attract shoppers.

“They advertise something at a bargain-basement price on an open platform such as Instagram, pretending to be from a genuine provider. When you buy and key in your credit card details, they have you trapped. Beware,” Zille warned on social media.

According to an ombudsman for banking services report, fraud remains a “big problem” in the financial service industry.

“Continuing the trend from previous years, complaints about current accounts and digital banking made up the two largest categories of cases opened in 2022, and most cases in both categories involved fraud of one type or another. The biggest subcategories of complaints in this regard is mobile banking fraud and vishing,” the ombudsman reported.

In one case, a bank had to pay out R2m after emails were intercepted during communication with a client who wanted to transfer funds from an investment account to a cheque account.

“The complainant gave an instruction to her investment banker to close her investment account and transfer the funds to her cheque account. Unbeknown to all parties, the emails were intercepted and the second banker received 'fraudulent' banking details. The bank then processed the payment to the ‘fraudulent’ banking details.

“It is the view of our courts that it is the duty of the payee/depositor to ensure they are paying the correct recipient. The bank agreed to refund the complainant her full financial loss of R2m.”

Recounting what happened to her, Zille said: “I answered the phone number 060 207 2612, which was the first alarm. A woman introduced herself as being from my bank's anti-fraud department and asked if I had authorised a debit order of R5,000 from my cheque account.

“As my husband does a lot of my banking and management of our household affairs, I asked her to hold while I inquired from him whether he had taken out a debit order for recurring expenditure. He said no and warned me to be careful as someone might be scamming me,” she said.

Thereafter, Zille asked the woman to read out her ID and bank account number for verification if she was indeed a bank consultant, which she did. At the end of the call, she was scammed despite a prompt call to the bank.

“The fraudsters know your details. They are familiar with the bank's modus operandi. They pick transactions you are not familiar with to catch you. And they combine just the right balance of politeness and urgency to make you co-operate with them.”