The first rule of buying or selling via the likes of Facebook Marketplace or Gumtree: consider everyone who responds to be a fraudster and take the necessary precautions.
The risk was extra big when Cape Town beauty salon owner Nazia decided to sell one of her laser hair removal machines by posting an advert on Facebook Marketplace: her asking price was R200,000.
A woman responded, saying she wanted to buy the machine, and undertook to send Nazia proof of an immediate payment of the full asking price.
Happy with that, Nazia arranged for the machine to be collected in Cape Town by transport company DSV and delivered to a Midrand address supplied by her buyer.
But when the “proof of payment” arrived, it wasn’t an immediate payment.
“The woman claimed she made the payment quickly and forgot to choose that option,” Nazia said.
Then she Whatsapped Nazia an image of the ID card of a 60-year-old woman called Susan - “as proof of who I was chatting to”.
Fraudsters do this to create trust, using the ID documents of fraud victims.
When Nazia checked her bank account the following day - May 29 - the R200,000 wasn’t reflecting, but she assumed the delay was due to it being a public holiday; the day of the national election.
“But I woke up at 4 the next morning feeling very uneasy so I checked the SMS number on Truecaller and got 'Facebook scammer'. I freaked out, and had to wait until 7am to call DSV as that’s when they open,” she said.
She explained the circumstances and asked for the original delivery address to be replaced with that of her uncle in Meyerton instead. She was told it would be done.
A DSV agent emailed a copy of the company’s change of address instruction shortly afterwards, to reassure her that it had been done.
Meanwhile Absa confirmed to Nazia that the reference number she’d received from “Susan” was fake.
“So I called DSV back to make sure that the address was definitely changed,” she said. “Another consultant reassured me that there was a note showing change of address.”
She made two more calls to DSV to make absolutely sure that her machine would not be delivered to the original address.She was told it would delivered to the warehouse instead, and then sent to her uncle’s address the following day.
At about 1pm, Nazia, still feeling uneasy, called yet again, only to hear the words: “Your parcel was delivered about 15 minutes ago”.
The delivery address supplied by “Susan” was an empty plot, as she claimed to be renovating her house. She was waiting at the plot, where she loaded the machine into her car and drove off.
Nazia opened a case with SAPS, but two months on, she has no machine and no money.
“It’s a massive loss to me as a small business owner,” she said.
She feels that loss could have been prevented if DSV had acted on her repeated instructions, but the company is denying any failures on their part.
She was told: “The driver executed the delivery as per instruction on the actual parcel.
“We are not disputing the fact that communication came through from yourself to our customer service department with regards to a new delivery address, but unfortunately this information only reached our driver after the actual delivery took place.
“We assure you that our commitment to service excellence remains unwavering.”
I asked the company if it was true that they weren’t prepared to take any responsibility for that “unfortunate” lapse.
We are not disputing the fact that communication came through from yourself to our customer service department with regards to a new delivery address, but unfortunately this information only reached our driver after the actual delivery took place. We assure you that our commitment to service excellence remains unwavering.
— DSV response
Ralton Moses, MD of DSV Road, responded: “DSV acted properly in the execution of a mandate from the customer.
“The customer chose not to take out liability cover, nor was the value of the parcel declared.
“DSV is, however, pursuing the matter with our insurers to assess whether the claim would be considered.
“Once a parcel is in transit, it is not possible to recall the delivery nor change the delivery address.
“Following an assessment of this incident, our website will specifically make this point clear.”
But at the time of Nazia’s ordeal, the website advised that such delivery address changes were a “simple” process, done by the customer via phone or filling in a form.
Plus, none of the agents she spoke to on that fateful day advised her otherwise, and she has email confirmation of the change in instructions - many hours before the driver delivered that expensive machine to an empty plot.
Trudie Broekmann, a Cape Town-based attorney specialising in consumer law, said Section 65 of the Consumer Protection Act made it clear that companies were required to exercise the degree of care, diligence and skill that could be reasonably expected from someone responsible for managing the property of another, and that they were liable to the owner of the property for any loss resulting from a failure to meet the standard of carefulness.
“In this case, there was plenty of time to communicate internally to prevent delivery to the scammer,” she said.
Nazia is considering her options.
• Contact Knowler for advice with your consumer issues via e-mail consumer@knowler.co.za or on X (Twitter) @wendyknowler
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