In the hopes of creating awareness about ongoing fraud in the community, Bedfordview and Edenvale News met with a couple who lost R30 000 to a scam.
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*Amy and Shawn, both in the 60s, spoke out to warn others after reading about *Martha, a Germiston resident who similarly lost thousands when she also fell victim to a scam.
In May, Amy and Shawn lost their money through several payments while trying to purchase a vehicle.
Amy explained that everything started while browsing vehicles to buy on the Facebook marketplace.
After having recently sold Shawn’s bakkie, the couple were in a position to purchase a second-hand vehicle and pay off some of their debt.
Amy said after she became unemployed the couple needed to use money from the bakkie’s sale to pay off some of the debt.
“I used to do locksmithing but we sold the car I was using with the hopes that we could buy a smaller car,” said Shawn.
After taking to the marketplace, they set their eyes on an automatic Hyundai i20 advertised for R23 000.
After making inquiries about the vehicle the couple was informed that the posted price was incorrect as the 15% VAT (R3450) was not included in the price.
They paid R11 500 on May 26, R14 950 on May 27 and then R3 550 on May 28.
After making their payments, the couple requested an invoice, however, none was received.
Amy said the sellers tried to assure them everything was all right and that the…
