Police in Thamaga are worried by the increasing cases of fraudsters and swindlers impersonating public servants.
According to Deputy Station Commander, Busang Malope, they have recorded three of such cases between December and January and it appears the tendency is gaining traction.
According to Malope, in one of the cases a 42-year-old woman was swindled of P20 000 and a phone worth P3000 on the 6th of January by two men who identified themselves as police officers.
“One man approached her and said he has found some lost money and he tricked her into going with him to see the money. Somewhere along the way, came two men who said they were police officers and said the man who was with the victim was a suspect in a theft case. They then told the woman that they were arresting her and demanded her bank cards and phone and went on to cash on more than P20 000 from her account,” Malope said.
Still on another case which happened on the 20th of January in Kumakwane, a certain man who is well known for producing beef products was nearly swindled of P4000 by four men who identified themselves as cops too.
According to the police chief, the four men identified themselves as cops from police headquarters and were there to close the business since it was operating on the backyard of his home.
Nonetheless, the four men went on to request that the victim pay them in order to bury the issue aside-resulting in a P4000 e-wallet transaction.
However following his suspicions, the man would later reverse the e-wallet he sent to the suspects before reporting to the police. However the four unknown men still walked away with meat worth P200 which they took forcefully.
“They told him they were from the police Stock Theft Unit and that the reason they were after him was that he doesn’t slaughter his cattle at the abattoir. They claimed that they were going to confiscate the meat products,” said Malope.
Malope said they were yet to make any arrests on the concerned cases. “This problem is rampant in our policing area. I’m just quoting a few of those cases. These guys normally use a fake police IDs which they just flash over the victims”.
Malope further advised members of the public to be always vigilant.
“We have a way of operating as police officers. We can arrest people in public but there is no how we can request for your phones, bank cards and pin numbers. So people should be vigilant and always request for a closer look at the ID produced or even request to go to the office station,” he said.
