Scammers use fake SMSes and online links to trap drivers into paying inflated fines, preying on holiday travel stress.
Be careful. The hills are alive with scam artists and one of the latest is road traffic fines, which makes sense since most of the country is gearing up for the Easter lemming-like rush to the coast or hinterland.
We will be reminded to make sure our vehicles are roadworthy. It’s vital to make sure the documentation is up to date, like the licence on your windscreen. It’s worth taking your driver’s licence out, too, and scrutinising it to make sure it’s still valid and hasn’t expired.
Finally, you want to make sure you don’t have any outstanding fines, because if you bring attention to yourself at a roadblock (broken lights/expired disc/faulty licence), you can guarantee that you’ll be invited for a chat at the roadside to find out if you’ve got unpaid fines. Therein lies the catch.
I recently registered on Finessa; it’s one of a couple of really good websites that let you know – given that our post office has effectively imploded – if you have a fine that needs to be paid. It makes it easy to sort it out, too.
So, there were no alarm bells when I got an SMS last week warning that I had an outstanding traffic violation and asking me to click on the link.
I did and discovered I had a R400 speeding fine.
I promised myself I’d sort it out but the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
At the weekend, I got a second SMS and found out that my fine had been reduced to R200 – if I paid it then.
I clicked on the link which purported to be from Pay City and was asked to put in the code from the bank.
Suddenly, the R200 morphed into 3 888 Arab Emirates dirham (about R18 100) for Max Top Way Trading LLC.
I never put in the code, so no payment was made.
Then, I refreshed the site, trying to get out of it and there was another request for authorisation from the bank, this time for 120 000 rupees (about R21 800) for Confident Holidays and PAC.
It’s terrifying and so very clever in terms of catching the unwary.
Thank God for our banking systems and two step verification but it’s telling that a “cold drink” at a roadblock would have been a helluva lot cheaper – and safer.
In a nutshell, that’s South Africa’s problem right there.
NOW READ: We’re still fine: Aarto hits another roadblock
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