Motorists are advised to be aware of a new scam tactic being used by street merchants operating at traffic lights in South Africa.
This scam was recently highlighted by 2oceansvibe, which detailed a encounter with a scammer stationed at a light in Cape Town’s CBD.
What to watch out for
Road users are no doubt familiar with the hundreds of hawkers trying to sell wares at popular intersections.
While these items have traditionally been bought with cash, most consumers now pay for everything with their debit or credit cards and have little to no cash on hand.
This means that more and more South Africans now use card machines to be able to take payments, regardless of the work they do, which has created an opportunity for unscrupulous vendors.
These street salesmen will typically approach a car that already has its window open and strike up a conversation with the occupants.
They will then attempt to offer you an item as a “gift,” which typically takes the form of something like a cheap hat.
Since this is taking place at a robot where the lights could turn at any moment, this offer is quickly turned into a matter of urgency, and the person will throw the item into the car.
This effectively guilt-trips the driver into paying for the item rather than driving off with an item taken from a person on the street.
This tactic is nothing new, mind you, and motorists will often feel pressured to hand over whatever cash they have on hand, such as a R100 note.
However, since everything is paid for with a bank card these days, these merchants will often conveniently have a card machine on hand such as a Yoco device.
The hawker will then offer to put in whatever amount the person says they are willing to pay for the goods, which is likely in the ball park of between R100 and R200.
However, the person will then have “issues” trying to confirm the payment and will ask the individual to enter their PIN.
During this time, the scammer will have quietly increased the amount to a ludicrous amount in the thousands, hoping that the driver won’t notice until it’s too late.
Again, this is all happening in the context of a traffic light, which means the motorist is caught off guard and likely won’t have time to check the payment.
2oceansvibe described one such encounter at the intersections along Buitengracht and Nelson Mandela Boulevard in Cape Town, where a hawker putting on a friendly facade managed to convince a driver to pay for two hats.
The individual agreed to pay R250 but, upon checking the amount on the machine, saw that another zero had been added, making the total R2,500.
The claim that the machine is having issues is likely a way to convince people to enter their PIN without too much thought, as most banks do not permit tap or swipe transactions over a certain amount unless a PIN is entered, meaning the scammers can attempt to pocket a much greater sum than a tap payment would allow.
Loading ...
