Durban - Teachers at a primary school in Durban are being defrauded of tens of thousands of rand through identity theft with no end in sight to their dilemma.
Bheki Mhlongo, of Mpola, near Mariannhill, has had more than his fair share of contact with identity thieves. Mhlongo, a teacher, said: “On November 8 I got a call from Capitec Bank in uMlazi saying that someone had tried to open an account in my name, even though I already had one there.
“When the bank’s consultant started to ask why the picture they had on their system did not correspond with the picture of the man in the ID, the man took the ID and said he had parked badly and left. He never returned to the bank.”
Mhlongo said he would understand if he had lost his ID, but he had never lost it and the suspect was able to get the latest ID.
He also found out that an account at Woolworths had been opened under his name.
Mhlongo said the man tried to open another account at Mr Price in China City Mall in Mahatma Gandhi (Point) Road but was arrested when staff became suspicious.
“Other teachers have the same problem. They end up being blacklisted because of this,” Mhlongo said, becoming more emotional as he relayed the story.
He also found out that the person was using the telephone number at the Department of Education’s Truro House to confirm details when shops were checking if his credentials were valid.
Mhlongo said he was lucky the person was caught, but said his wife – who did not want to be named – was not as lucky.
Released
Mhlongo said the suspect was released on bail. “How can a person who is able to steal one’s identity be released on bail? I don’t feel safe any more. How long do we have to live this sort of life?”
He said he had to change his banking details and make other adjustments to his life.
“The law favours the criminals,” he said angrily.
His wife, a teacher, said in September she discovered something was wrong when she received an sms notifying her about the purchase of an iPad and a cellphone under her name.
When she went to enquire, the alleged fraudster had taken an iPad and two Samsung S5 phones. She said she opened a case but there was very little progress on the matter.
“I am very stressed right now. There is nothing more stressful than having to go to banks and shops and having to ask them to reimburse the money that was stolen.
“The person who is doing this to me has (what looks like) an original payslip, a bank statement and an identity document. I would like to know from the department how a person can have an original payslip?” she asked.
She said the suspects had run up a debt of R100 000 opening various accounts.
A fellow teacher, who asked to remain anonymous, said she found out in September that someone was using her personal information to open accounts.
“I received an SMS from the bank that had debited my account.”
She said when she found out her details were being used fraudulently, she became “very angry” and extremely depressed later on.
The teacher said she was going to send a letter to the department to see if it could assist her to resolv
e the problem. She said the thieves had bought goods worth R50 000 using her name. She also said she did not know how the thieves got hold of her details.
KZN Education Department spokesman, Muzi Mahlambi, said the complainants should open a criminal case as the police were best equipped to deal with the matter. He said another problem was that when people called to confirm details of the person, they did not know whether it was a syndicate or not.
He said this problem was compounded by the fact that some companies used private numbers when they called to verify details. Mahlambi said if the police approached the department to investigate the matter the department would assist.
Arrests
SAPS Major Thulani Zwane confirmed that a case of fraud had been opened by Mhlongo’s wife.
No arrests had been made as the investigation is ongoing.
In a statement sent by the Southern African Fraud Prevention Service, it stated that there had been a 256 percent increase in ID theft from 2009 to last year, and at the end of September, 2 761 cases been opened.
This year, Gauteng had the most number of cases of ID theft with 48 percent of all cases, and KwaZulu-Natal was second with 19 percent.
Daily News