A Kimberley couple almost lost the roof over their heads after they were apparently scammed out of tens of thousands of rand by two employees at a muti shop in the city.
A KIMBERLEY couple almost lost the roof over their heads after they were apparently scammed out of thousands of rand by two employees at a muti shop in the city.
According to the woman, she and her husband had to sell their Nissan bakkie and parted with several thousands of rand in cash, amounting to about R30,000, after apparently being promised by the muti shop employees that their wealth would increase.
The woman said she fell victim to the promises that her money could be doubled or even tripled after she went to the muti shop to consult about a problem she was experiencing.
“I had a problem and thought the people at the muti shop could assist me with solving my problem. I found two foreign national men at the muti shop who indicated to me that they were employed at the shop. After telling them about my problem, the men then gave me some medicine and also some herbs to burn. They gave me instructions on how to use the medicine,” said the woman.
“After relaying my problem to them, they then said my husband must sell his bakkie as he had several car accidents in that bakkie and it would cause his death. They told us that we must go with the first offer to purchase the bakkie and not negotiate any deal. The men told me and my husband that the bakkie was bad luck and would destroy our lives, hence we must not hesitate when someone makes us an offer to buy the bakkie and that we must sell the bakkie for any amount that we are offered. We then did as instructed and sold the bakkie for R13,000.”
The woman claimed that they had to hand over cash to the two men during other visits to the muti shop.
“When my husband and I returned to the same muti shop on a different occasion, it was on the day my husband received his salary. The men instructed my husband to give them R7,500. My husband did as they told him.
“They told us that my husband’s money was dirty and they needed to cleanse the money. On top of that money, my husband had to give them a further R6,000. They told us the R6,000 was for a bag which will double our money.
“All the transactions were done in cash and those men never gave us any slips for the money we gave them. The bag also had to stay at the muti shop and we never took it home.”
The woman explained further that as they continued with their consultations, they were told to sell their house and that her husband should take his pension payout.
“On another day when my husband went to the muti shop again, we were told that we must put money in a small chest. There was a human skull on top of the chest. We placed R50 in the chest. We were then told to hold hands and pray for our money to increase.
“They held my husband’s hands and we stood there praying over the chest and the skull with our eyes closed. After some minutes we were told to stop and there was this voice of an old man talking. The men called the voice ‘Grandfather’ and the voice was praying. One could hear from the voice that it was also a foreign accent.
“After the voice was done, the men opened the chest and we saw that there was much more money inside the chest. The chest was full of money. We were shocked and the men said that our prayers were answered. They then took away the money, saying that they needed to cleanse it before they could pay it into our account.
“They then told us that we needed to sell our house and that my husband needed to bring his pension as we could see that our prayers were being answered.
“They told my husband that there were people at his job who were jealous of him and that his money needed to be cleansed. We then also had to pay for a sheep as they said that we needed to cleanse our home with blood.
“We gave the men our bank account details but they never paid the money into our bank account.”
The woman said that she and her husband later came to their senses after they deliberated about the sale of their house.
“We struggled with the fact that we had to sell our house. We then started questioning the entire process. We then realised that these people were playing with us. We refused to sell the house and planned to go back to the muti shop to demand all of our money back.”
She added that the two men had, however, disappeared when they returned to the muti shop.
“When we went back to the shop we were met by a man who claimed that he was the owner of the shop. We asked about his two employees and he claimed that the men no longer worked there and that he did not know their whereabouts.
“We told him about all the money we had given to them. The owner said there was nothing he could do about the matter as they were no longer working for him.”
The woman said they then reported the matter to the police.
“We went to the police and they told us that because we had handed the money to the men, they could not investigate or arrest the men. They said we were not under any duress when we handed over the money nor did we have any paperwork as proof of our claims
“It appears now that both myself and my husband were under the spell of those people. It is heartbreaking that people can be scammed and the scammers get to walk free and continue with their criminal activity. People must not trust these people as one might find yourself on the street,” she said.
Police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Sergio Kock warned residents to be vigilant against such practices.
“The public is welcome to report such incidents to the relief or station commander. The police in the Province are urging the public to adhere to and implement safety tips against scams and fraud. The public should be careful of inviting or giving money to persons who claim they can grow your money. These criminals especially target persons who are receiving retirement lump sum payouts and large sums of insurance cash,” said Kock.
“Residents should also not respond to e-mails or cellphone messages and flyers from suspicious persons providing assistance with various problems. Residents must also not respond to e-mails or messages promising large sums of money or even great prizes. Be careful and delete such messages.
“Also, never provide our identity number (ID), password or PIN to anyone or write it down to share with someone. Never give credit card or online account details or even send money to someone you do not know.
“Remember, if it looks too good to be true, it usually is,” Kock concluded.
