The cases vary greatly, from purchasing a holiday home in the Cape to buying vehicles, furniture, and collectible items online, to items such as dogs, cats, and even goats. Some of the sales are initiated through Facebook advertisements and some use second-hand sales platforms like Gumtree. Others are through fraudsters creating fake identities representing valid sales sites such as Takealot.com. Police in Hoedspruit have asked FarmWatch to assist them in educating community members about online behaviour.
“In many of these cases it is impossible for the police to trace or follow up on these cases – it takes very high-level cyber security experts to do so. It often is impossible for them to solve any of the cases opened with them,” said the FarmWatch management. FarmWatch in Hoedspruit has issued the following cyber safety guidelines:
Also read: Correctional services in Polokwane management area cautions public on learnership scam
1. Don’t click what you don’t know (if you receive an SMS, text, or email asking you to follow a link to a standard website, don’t click the link, rather enter the website address yourself directly into your browser – i.e. if you receive a mail that says, your Standard Bank account details need updating, click the link to update it – don’t click the link, rather go to your browser and type in Standard Bank’s website yourself. If it is a genuine request, it will be made known on the official website itself or when you log in…
