Is there no shame? Scammers pose as anti-corruption unit SIU

South Africa’s corruption-busting agency the SIU is warning of a new scam where fraudsters impersonate SIU officials.

Apparently, the fraudsters say, as the SIU, that if victims pay bribes to them they will cease their investigations.

The unit says it will take legal action against those founds to be perpetrating the scam.
South Africans are no strangers to online scams, with scammers and bad actors seemingly finding every possible way to impersonate official agencies and organisations to quickly gain the trust and swindle users.

The latest sees the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), South Africa’s corruption-busting task force issuing a warning to the public to not fall for a scam that sees bad actors impersonate the head of the unit, Advocate Andy Mothibi and other members.

These bad actors are impersonating the officials in order to solicit funds from South Africans.

“The scammers are trying to solicit funds from members of the public in the name of Advocate Mothibi and the SIU,” reads an official statement from the unit.

The SIU warns the public of scammers pretending to be the Head of the SIU pic.twitter.com/D5MJO5zq9W— Special Investigating Unit (SIU) (@RSASIU) April 22, 2024“The SIU has taken steps to investigate and determine who these people are and their motives. We urge the public to be cautious and not fall prey to these scammers,” it added.

One key aspect of the scam is that apparently, the scammers are soliciting money as a form of a bribe. They are seemingly asking for money, as the SIU, in order to “make investigations disappear.” Officially, the SIU says it will never ask for funds from the public or take bribes.

“The SIU will not hesitate to take legal action against anyone impersonating the SIU and its staff members.”

Scams found online can lead to serious losses incurred on the part of the victims. Last year we covered another scam, this time with fraudsters impersonating Eskom employees and using the high unemployment rate as a means to trick vulnerable people.

In this scam, people answer job adverts online supposedly from Eskom, drive to a location, give money to scammers, apparently expenses for medical checkups before hiring them, and then never see the scammers again
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