Face masks save and rob us

Kennedy Pholose
Thekwana, Rustenburg

Covid 19 has been robbing us our beloved and livelihood, it also brought opportunities to governmental officials to steal money which were allocated for social relief of distress. Now there is a much more dangerous activities perpetrated with the help of face masks. ATM scam is now at a high rise in criminals are now using Covid 19 face masks to cover their identities and blend in with the public. If you are not observant, you won’t notice this but there is between a person wearing a face mask to protect himself against Covid 19 infection and a person hiding his identity.

This criminals move around the shopping complex, malls and Rustenburg CBD scamming people their ATM cards and withdraw their hard earned salaries, pension and grants. One of the victims Tebogo said ” I swear this people are masters of distraction and they are fast, I had never ever thought I can be scammed”. They are four in number, drive either a stolen or hired car. Some even wear security uniform acting as if they are guarding targeted ATMs.

They will activate cardless transaction while watching you using ATM mirrors and leave, when you enter your card it will get stuck inside unaware after you punched you pin number that’s when they pounce at you acting as if they are helping you. While you are watching the screen they quickly change cards and disappear in seconds. This ruthless criminals don’t discriminate anyone distracted is their prey. People look around when approaching ATM to see if there are no suspicious people hiding their identity. They should press cancel before using ATM, avoid being helped by people near the ATM. And walk away if feeling uneasy.