Beware of water scam: department

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File photo

Published Mar 6, 2015

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Johannesburg - The water and sanitation department warned the public on Friday about a scam targetting its service providers.

“The department has over the past weeks been flooded with calls and visits from suppliers who have been requested to provide certain services in the name of the DWS by an unknown syndicate,” it said in a statement.

An unsuspecting supplier would receive a request for a quotation, purportedly from the department, asking for delivery of items including a certain type of cutting disc.

“The discs are specified in such a way that not any other supplier will have such items. In a desperate attempt to urgently respond to the request for quotation, the unsuspecting supplier resorts to Google to look for any provider of goods who has such items.”

The so-called supplier found on Google, once contacted, sends the supplier a quotation and asks for money to be deposited into a bank account before delivery is made.

According to the department the supplier is the BGS Group.

After depositing the cash, the supplier is told the goods have been delivered to the department and that an outstanding balance is required, the department said.

“The unsuspecting supplier would then contact the department to check when his payment would be made, only to be told that the department does not have any knowledge of such goods having been ordered.

“It is at this point that the unsuspecting supplier would realise that they have been conned.”

The department warned suppliers to verify the legitimacy of the orders.

Sapa

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