CRIME ALERT: Impersonation of SAPS Officials, by Criminal Syndicates, claiming the false recovery of stolen vehicles:
Please be aware of the following scam, which has been
active for approximately the past year, reported to the Insurance Crime Bureau
by several member companies; recovery agents and tracking companies.
Following the actual theft of their vehicles, complainants
are contacted by individuals claiming to be members of the South African
Police Services.
This “police officer” will inform the owner or complainant
of the “recovery” of the stolen vehicle in question, usually geographically far
away from where the case has been reported.
For instance if the vehicle was reported at Sinoville police
station the “SAPS member” will inform the complainant that the vehicle was
recovered in Rustenburg, or even somewhere on the Botswana or Zimbabwe border
line.
The “SAPS member” is in possession of the complainants, and
vehicle owner’s personal detail, as well as detail of the stolen vehicle.
The “SAPS member” will then confirm that the vehicle is at a
remote location and will request a “fee” from the owner in order to move it to
the nearest police impound for collection, or in some cases delivery directly
back to the owner.
The explanation by the “SAPS member” will be that this fee
is for a break down service to transport the vehicle back to the owner, or to
the nearest pound, or that the fee will be for him to drive the vehicle back to
the owner instead of booking it into the closest pound.
The “SAPS member” will also reason that once the vehicle is
booked into a police impound the owner will find it difficult to get the
vehicle released, but by paying the agreed fee he will bring the vehicle to the
owner instead, hence saving him a lot of trouble.
The fee requested by the criminal impersonating a member of
SAPS, may vary from R 1000 to R 3000 and the request will be to transfer the
agreed fee to either a specific account or via e wallet, PayPal, or other money
transfer options.
The general public is not familiar with police procedure,
and they are not aware that the South African Police Service will not ask a fee
following the recovery of a stolen vehicle.
Some of the individuals involved in this scam have been
identified, and are in fact operating from within Prison, where they are
serving time for other crimes.
The criminals involved in this scam are obtaining the
personal information and details of the complainants and owners of stolen motor
vehicles by randomly phoning police stations, and impersonating senior officers
attached to Police Head Office.
They simply request information of all vehicles reported
stolen to the station during the previous 24 hours.
The information received from within our industry regarding
this scam is continuously being updated and forwarded to the South African
Police Service, who have established a task team to address this situation.
It has however been suggested that the South African
Police Service release a press statement to warn the public in general of this
scam.
It is also suggested that the SAPS send out a circular
through their internal structures to station level to caution their members not
to divulge case information telephonically without verifying the identity of
the caller.
Extract obtained from the THE INSURANCE CRIME BUREAU