Internet Banking Money Related Scams In South Africa

There are many types of money related scams floating around these days apart from the work at home programs I have touched on previously. With the South African economy generally taking a bit of a slide lately a lot of people are desperate for cash and consider selling goods through online classified sites such as gumtree and the like. These sites are great and the majority of transactions are open and honest but it is wise to exercise caution when selling your goods on these sites and accepting Internet transfer payments.

Many are now using Internet banking for the speed and convenience and online payments are being accepted as a normal way of buying certain things but be warned, scam artists are lurking and looking for every opportunity to con their next victim out of some hard earned cash.

If you are selling something through gumtree or any other classified type website then never release those goods until you have been paid. That may sound quite obvious but it is amazing how many people will send something off to someone just on the trust of a faxed or emailed proof of payment. Wait until the funds are reflecting in your account, especially if the potential buyer is pressing you to send them the product/s. A proof of payment page or a deposit slip can quite easily be altered to look like a genuine payment has been made into your account for the amount you requested. In some cases a con-artist will go one step further and put in even more money than you are asking in an attempt to make them seem trustworthy, they may say the extra cash is to cover courier or postage costs.

The image below is a fraudulent proof of payment that I did myself to show you just how easy this is. I did this in no longer than 15 minutes using the ‘NetBank’ demo function on the Nedbank website, I do not even hold any accounts with this bank.  (Click on image to enlarge)

It is better that a genuine buyer get a little frustrated about having to wait a day or two while the funds clear in your account than a fraudster conning you out of your money.

Actually most of the classified sites around the web will advise you to not sell anything to anyone outside your local area where you can meet face to face and exchange goods for cash no problem. Trouble is, chances are high that a potential buyer lives somewhere else in the country and if you are desperate to sell, you won’t turn them away.

Like I said, the majority of transactions are genuine but every now and then someone will get caught by an Internet banking money scam. Stay alert, don’t just trust anyone and hopefully you won’t become one of those that have been caught by an online fraudster.