INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS

Employers of domestic workers in South Africa are being warned to obey the laws regulating their employment of domestic workers ahead of a crackdown by the department of labour. Photo: Boxer Ngwenya

Durban residents have been warned of a new twist to a scam that aims to fleece unsuspecting employers for money to pay for the funeral of a “dead” domestic worker.

The fraudsters now try to get sensitive information about employers’ private properties in order to plan burglaries.

This emerged after an alert Cape Town woman, Martine Yeld, who was visiting her elderly mother on the Berea last week, received repeated calls from fraudsters who had earlier posed as staff from the “labour bureau”.

They won the trust of her mother’s domestic worker, who believed she was speaking to a Department of Labour official.

Yeld said the male fraudsters first “cold called” her mother last Thursday morning asking whether she employed a domestic worker and whether he could speak to her.

“They proceeded to ask (the domestic worker) personal details - how much she earned, how long she had been in the job, where she comes from and whether she is there on weekends,” Yeld said.

She said he had also asked about her children and who else lived on the property. “They asked for a great deal of information which she trustingly gave,” Yeld said.

The fraudster then called back that evening claiming to be her domestic worker’s son, saying he had been trying to contact his mother. But, when the domestic worker, who lives on the property, called her son he said he had not called.

The fraudster called again later claiming to be her brother. He said the domestic worker had died in an accident and asked for money for her funeral. He continued calling and asking for money until 7.30am the next day.

Yeld said when she reported it to the SAPS Flying Squad, a policeman told her that the fraudsters had also been operating in La Lucia and La Mercy and were gathering information to plan burglaries.

Provincial SAPS spokeswoman, Phindile Radebe, said police had not had any reports of the scam.

Berea residents Viv and Jimmy Burgess almost fell for the same scam on Friday. However, because the couple had contact names and numbers of their domestic worker’s family they were able to avoid losing R5 000. Apart from several calls to their cellphone saying their domestic worker had died in an accident, they also received an SMS asking for help.

“He wanted me to put cash into his Absa account and I told him that I would put the money into her niece’s bank account which was when he swore at me, which made me worried,” Burgess said.

Burgess then called 10111 to report the matter to the police. However, he was told that he could not open a case of attempted extortion because he had not incurred a loss.

The Daily News reported recently how in a similar case the intended victim had called their domestic worker on another phone. The scam artist was telling them the worker was dead while he was able to talk to her at the same time.

Radebe urged victims to report incidents of the scam to their nearest police station and to insist on a case being opened so that police could investigate the matter.

Department of Labour spokesman, Jay Anand, said labour inspectors did not conduct their inspections over the telephone.

“Labour law compliance can only be checked thoroughly after a physical inspection is undertaken at the workplace,” he said.

“Any person in doubt or encountering suspicious activities is advised to contact the nearest Labour Centre to verify the identity of an inspector who is required in the call of duty to present an inspector’s card as a form of identity at all times.”

Chubb Security spokeswoman, Alison Bull, said employers must incorporate domestic workers into their security by advising them not to give out sensitive information about the property, work routines or their alarm systems.

Peter Anderson, the managing director of Blue Security, said the company had noticed many incidents where domestic workers were either directly or indirectly involved in crimes by unwittingly giving out sensitive information.

“We are probably far too trusting when it comes to domestic workers. We will take someone off the street when we don’t know them and we put them in full control of our homes, and then we are surprised when something goes wrong,” Anderson said.

Anderson advised employers to take a copy of a domestic worker’s identity document and to keep the names and contact numbers of family members to avoid being taken in by scams. - Daily News