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Cape Town – “Unscrupulous syndicates” have been using Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown’s name to con businesses, with one business losing R112 000 a week ago, she said on Thursday.
“A company was defrauded of R112 000 a week ago and a criminal case has been opened with the South African Police Service,” Brown said in a statement. “The perpetrators lured individual private service providers to submit quotations to ‘DPE’ for specific services required.”
In another scheme, fraudsters posed as supply chain management officers and asked people to pay R2 500 for a position in the department.
“The public received requests on their Facebook inboxes this week purportedly from me requesting advance payment of R2 500 for positions in the department,” said Brown. “It appears authentic as the mail contains all my contact details with a contact person.”
The modus operandi of the fraudsters is that they attach the department’s logo in their communication with the unsuspecting victims.
They then pretend to be supply chain management officers and request other supporting documentation from service providers, which is followed by requests to have money deposited into their account(s).
“I appeal to the public to be vigilant and want to make it clear that the department does not ask advance payment for any possible service to be rendered to the department and/or its state-owned companies.
“The department’s supply chain management unit maintains a database of all registered service providers and no upfront payment is required. Registration to this database is free,” said Brown.
The public should contact Zandarine Theron at 012 431 1030 and/or zandarine.theron@dpe.gov.za to verify procurement opportunities and Phumeza Mabija at 012 431 1174 and/or phumeza.mabija@dpe.gov.za for general enquiries.
