Cradock Police have issued a warning to all residents and people of all backgrounds, ages and income levels residing in Cradock to be very careful of scammers who bombard people with on-line, mail, door-to-door and telephone scams.
Some of the scams offered are fake lotteries, advance fee frauds, get-rich-quick schemes and miracle health cures. These are favourite means of separating the unwary from their money. According to a spokesman from the corporate communication and liaison office of the police, new varieties of these scam appear all the time.
Residents are warned that legitimate lotteries do not require anybody to pay a fee to collect their winnings. People must take caution to never send any money to anyone unknown to them and never to provide personal banking details to a person that you do not know and trust.
People are warned to examine all terms and conditions of any offer very carefully and to remember that claims of free or very cheap offers often have hidden costs.
Calls or text messages to premium rate phone numbers – those are all the numbers staring with 19 – can be very expensive.
First question to always ask yourself is Did I enter this competition? You cannot win money or a prize in a competition unless you have entered it yourself or if someone else entered it on your behalf.
