STOKVEL groups and members are warned to be extra careful this festive season as criminals are targeting them.
Forensic investigator, Calvin Rafadi told Daily Sun that criminals are now targeting stokvel members who share their money at the end of the year.
“They drive around different neighborhoods and when they see many cars parked in one yard, they assume it is members of a stokvel who are sharing their money,” he said.
He said these criminals know some stokvel members no longer go to banks to share their money.
“The criminals know the stolvel members just choose one home of a member and share their money. They share the money with third parties who have untraceable accounts,” he said.
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Rafadi said some untraceable accounts are registered using fraudulent IDs that some people get from loan shark.
He said churches in the mountains are also victims of these crimes. “They get them in those mountains and force them to transfer the money to them because they know no one is going to save them,” said Rafadi.
Rafadi added that there are "love potion" scams targeting professional single women to get money from them.
“They target mostly teachers and nurses who are about to retire. They then tell them to take early retirement and convince them to open businesses by putting their money into their accounts. That is when they disappear,” he said.
