Johannesburg - Crime-fighting organisation eBlockwatch believes it has uncovered a new scam, when a man pretending to be a police officer solicited a bribe after a Joburg man’s daughter was arrested.
Instead of giving in to the demands of the man pretending to be from Linden police station, the father turned to the online crime-fighting group, asking for its help to catch the criminal.
Shane Nefdt was working when his wife arrived, telling him their daughter Hannah had been arrested the night before for allegedly drinking and driving.
The couple were on their way to Linden police station, where Hannah was being held, when they received a phone call from a man saying he was a detective Modise.
Nefdt said the man told them he was at the Randburg Magistrate’s Court and if they paid him R2 500, he would get the charges against their daughter deferred.
The father said at first he wasn’t sure what was happening. He knew he would have to pay bail to get his daughter released and thought the man was talking about that.
But he soon realised the man wanted a bribe to make the charges go away.
“I got really worked up, I was so angry. I wanted to meet this man face to face,” Nefdt said.
But the “detective” refused to meet them in person. He told them he would send them details on where they could send the money.
The couple then went to the police station, followed procedure and got their daughter.
The detective, however, kept on contacting them.
“It seemed like he didn’t know what was going on,” said Nefdt.
“He kept on talking about the court, so maybe he meant he could drop the charges at court.”
Nefdt started asking him questions like “should he bring a lawyer”, but the man said no and dropped the price to R2 000.
Later that night he called again, the couple put him on speaker phone and recorded the conversation. He told them to deposit the money at a Spar and sent them a phone number, pin and ID number, telling them they would need it to make the deposit.
He said they could then give him the receipt to show him the money was in the account and he would get the charges deferred. He said they could meet at the police station.
On Thursday, Nefdt and eBlockwatch chairman Andre Snyman went to Linden police station and reported the matter to the station commissioner.
Nefdt said they were told the Joburg metro police had made the arrest, but the only time Hannah gave out her parents’ number out was when filling in forms at the police station.
Any police officer at the station could have looked at the forms to get the number.
Snyman said the person calling the Nefdts could have been a police officer using a fake name, but it could also have been someone from the outside working with an officer to bribe people.
The police were investigating the matter.
“It’s a very clever scam because they probably don’t do anything to make the case go away. But you aren’t exactly going to go and complain because you paid a bribe,” said Snyman.
The Star