New “school girl” scam at South African petrol stations to be aware of

South African motorists should be aware of a new scam at filling stations, dubbed the “school girl” scam, which aims to take advantage of the revised gender-based violence act that was signed into law last year.

Richard Brussow, chief instructor of the National Hijack Prevention Academy, explains that these scams involve a girl aged somewhere between 13 and 17 years old dressed in a school uniform, that usually approaches a male motorist who is waiting for their car to be refueled, as reported by BusinessTech.

She will then ask to borrow the motorist’s cellphone to call her mother claiming she doesn’t have airtime left, with the goal of getting into the vehicle to use the phone.

“As soon as that girl is inside the car waiting to use your phone, a supposed metro police officer knocks on your window – asking what’s going on. This is when the school girls will shout and accuse the driver of abduction and attempted rape,” said Brussow.

Under the new gender-based violence or domestic violence act, this is an immediate arrest.

“I’ve dealt with cases where the motorist has been placed in handcuffs and berated for the situation they find themselves in,” he said.

Your (un)lucky day

The scammers use this fear of arrest as a motivator to get you to pay them a certain sum of cash in order for the girl to not take any legal action.

After making sure you won’t go anywhere, Brussow said the “police officer” goes to speak to the girl to find out what happened before coming back and saying something along the lines of: “It’s your lucky day. If you pay her R3,000, she will not carry on with the case against you”.

There have also been cases where it’s not just R3,000 once-off.

In these instances, the scammers will take the victim’s details and phone them periodically for payments by threatening that if the victims do not send them money, the girl will press charges against them.

“Be very, very careful here. If you get approached by a schoolgirl at a petrol station, do not let her in your vehicle under any circumstances,” warned Brussow.

“Lock your doors, and don’t engage with anyone that’s not an employee of the filling station.”