She had to take out a loan to repay everyone following the ordeal. A 56-year-old woman from Brakpan, Gauteng, lost R15,000 on Tuesday when she and her girlfriend were scammed by a man who was pretended to be selling cigarettes.
With the ban on buying and selling cigarettes and tobacco products still in place, smokers are becoming increasingly desperate to get their fix.
Unfortunately, there are also villains out there who are fully aware of the situation and use it to their advantage.
The woman says she was at her 60-year-old girlfriend’s house when a man “with a lot of gold in his teeth” said he was giving away free masks, reports Brakpan Herald.
She said: “We got talking and he indicated that he could get cigarettes for a very reasonable price.
“I don’t even smoke myself, but my friends and family, who do smoke, are very desperate and I immediately started taking orders and collecting money from everyone.
“The man said he would only take a large order, so I received about R15,000 from people who wanted cigarettes and my girlfriend added another R600.
“The man later returned to the house and we went inside to count the money.
“At that point, two women arrived and spoke to the other people in the house.
“When I think back, the man tried to confuse me, because he put the money in brown envelopes and then took it out again and then counted again.
“He also talked all the time. At one point, he left the envelopes on the table and said he was going out to fetch the cigarettes.
“He walked down the road to a white vehicle parked a distance from the house.”
The two women also disappeared from the house, leaving the woman already suspecting the man may not have the said cigarettes.
“It was then that I returned to the house and saw that there was nothing but pieces of newspaper in the envelopes.”
She had to take out a loan to repay everyone following the ordeal.
“I realize that what I did was wrong, but I still feel that the public should be warned against the man.
“In the meantime, I learned that he had tried it with other people as well,” the woman said.
Lt Col Peet van der Schyff said that the woman had indeed broken the law.
“The buying or selling of cigarettes and tobacco products is still prohibited and persons who are guilty of it can be criminally prosecuted.
“There are people out there who are spoiling the situation and the public should be alert,” Van der Schyff warned.
*This story was translated from Afrikaans
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Source: The Citizen
