Harare Woman Scammed By "Car Dealer" She Met On Facebook
A woman from Westgate, Harare, lost more than US$4 000 cash in a botched car deal involving a man she met on Facebook.
Vongai Pepukai (23) was allegedly scammed by Itayi Chikeya of CarsWorld who had promised to deliver a brand new Chevrolet Cruze after making payment through a money transfer agent.
Pepukai paid for the vehicle sometime in February but she is yet to receive the car.
Harare provincial police spokesperson, Inspector Luckmore Chakanza, confirmed the case to H-Metro. She said:
Police are investigating a case where a woman lost money to a man she found on social media.
The circumstances are that the complainant was defrauded of cash by the accused person.
He placed an advertisement on Facebook that he was an agent of a company called CarsWorld, which imports vehicles from South Africa.
She chose a Chevrolet Cruze on the accused person’s Facebook account, which was going for US$4 181.
She was told it included import duty.
She was told to deposit money through a money transfer agent based at Avondale Shopping Centre, which she did on various occasions.
The vehicle was not delivered as agreed, and that is when the complainant realised that she had been scammed.
According to Reader’s Digest, here is how to identify scammers:
- Online scammers often claim to be contacting you on behalf of businesses, brands or organizations you know and trust.
- If a company or government agency unexpectedly call you on the phone, that’s a tip-off that a scammer may be on the other end of the line.
- Beware of anyone who attempts to rush or push you into making a decision without first giving you time to verify and thoughtfully consider their requests.
- Scan any emails, messages or online chats you receive for misspellings, grammatical errors, strange subject lines or other discrepancies.
- Criminals build fake profiles on dating apps to lure you in with the promise of love, sometimes resorting to love bombing—and then try to coerce you into giving gifts or cash.
- On social networks and fake online retailers that are created specifically to appear to be the real thing, it’s not uncommon to find goods at steep discounts. Trust your instincts, and know that if a price is too good to be true, it’s likely a scam.
- A promise of easy money – No legitimate financial investment opportunity is sure to ever pay off 100% of the time—and cannot legally be advertised as “guaranteed” income—so be very leery of anyone promising such.
- Requests an unusual payment option – It’s not uncommon for romance scammers or someone who’s hacked a friend’s social media account to request that you send money using peer-to-peer payment systems (PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, etc.), gift cards, Western Union, wire transfers or cryptocurrency tokens.
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