City of Ekurhuleni warns the public of on-going scams
The City urges companies and individuals to be very vigilant
MULTIPLE types of scams have been making rounds in the City of Ekurhuleni, carrying the name of the municipality.
The City has been inundated with complaints from unsuspecting victims who have been defrauded of their hard-earned cash. To date, more than 20 people have been defrauded of over R2-million through these scams.
The most popular scam by the scammers is one that is formulated around a fake tender for waste wheelie bins.
Perpetrators of this criminal act send possible service providers an appointment letter bearing the City’s logo together with the fraudulently generated order number purported to come from the City.
Service providers are then requested to deposit a certain amount of money and they are told to deliver the 260L wheelie bins at 47 Van Buuren Road in Bedfordview.
In other scams, targeted victims are requested to participate in a tender for supply and delivery of electrical mobile metering devices for technicians.
Ratepayers are also targeted by being issued with fake letters of water supply termination due to alleged meter tampering and subsequently requested to pay a “spot fine” for re-connection or retention of services.
Grand-in-Aid applicants are requested to pay R2 500 to fast-track processing of their applications. Job applicants have also been targeted to pay money for their applications to be processed.
These pointers may assist to differentiate between fraudulent and legit communication by the City:
• The name of the city is City of Ekurhuleni, not Ekurhuleni Municipality.
• Landlines in the City have the 999 prefix.
• The email address for staff is: persons’name.surname@ekurhuleni.gov.za and not XXX@ekurhuleni-gov.org or any other variation.
• The tender office of the City is not situated at 47 Van Buuren Road, Bedfordview.
• The City informs all Grand-in-Aid and job applicants that applications for Grand-in-Aid are handled and processed free of charge and all job vacancies and applications are done online through the City’s website – www.ekurhuleni.gov.za.
To confirm the authenticity of quotations or tenders, contact details are available on the City’s website. Bidders can contact Hannes.vSchalkwyk@ekurhuleni.gov.za or Siphokazi.Xokozela@ekurhuleni.gov.za
For free daily local news in the south, visit our sister newspapers Alberton Record, Comaro Chronicle, Southern Courier and Get it Joburg South Magazine.
Remember to visit our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. You can also email our offices on cvdwalt@caxton.co.za, juliem@caxton.co.za or luckyt@caxton.co.za
Get regular news updates sent directly to your inbox: Newsletter-Signup
