Having announced the payout dates for the month, the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) recently issued an official statement warning beneficiaries to be aware of fraudsters resorting to various methods of scamming them.
According to the statement, the scammers have taken a bold approach, through which they come to social grant beneficiaries and falsely present themselves as SASSA employees.
While in possession of skimming devices, they then convince beneficiaries to check the validity of their social grant by swiping them on the skimming devices. This then enables the scammers to clone the victim's social grant card information, load it onto a new card and then use it to withdraw all of their money.
SASSA urges all beneficiaries to not cooperate with anyone who requests their information for any reason, as the agency does not take the door to door approach when assisting beneficiaries.
SASSA would like to warn all social grant beneficiaries to be alert and not cooperate with anybody who requests their cards in the streets or at home for whatever reason. SASSA does not send its staff to people's homes to tamper with their cards.
Beneficiaries are encouraged to report these incidents immediately to the police or contact SASSA on 0800601011 or social media.
SASSA CEO, Tsoties Memela also warns beneficiaries and notes which parts of the country in which this method of scam has been most common.
A report has been found that the scammers follow beneficiaries who have recently been paid especially in the Eastern Cape, North West and KZN.
"We do not know as yet if they also ask beneficiaries to enter their card PINS, however in such cases beneficiaries are advised to please always keep their social grant payment card PINS safe and to themselves" she added.
RELATED: SASSA Grant Payment Dates For June
SASSA Media Release: New Scammers Targeting SASSA Beneficiaries #SASSACARES @The_DSD @nda_rsa @GCISMedia @GovernmentZA @PostofficeSa pic.twitter.com/tLGFnhXHNx
— SASSA (@OfficialSASSA) June 4, 2021
