Almost caught by a deposit/refund scam

I was almost caught by one of those "we paid too much into your account, please refund me"-scams. Here is my experience:

I complained twice to Telkom because they are overcharging me since April for my doBroadband connection. (I'm still waiting for them to come back about the issue.)

On Monday 18 Aug. 2008 at last a "Telkom" representative calling himself "Collen" (sic) phoned me, apologizing very nicely (like only Telkom can do for their bad service) about overcharging me for another service (that I did not complain about). I was much relieved that Telkom started doing something and promptly supplied my bank account details.

On Thu. 21 Aug. "Collen" phoned again with a big problem - they have accidentally paid R52000 instead of R2000 back into my account.
Checking my account did show the amount!
He asked for a refund, and faxed his banking details on an official looking form from "Telkom Billing Inspectorate".

By now I realized what was going on. I was playing for time while trying to get the SAPS on the case. So we had quite a few calls.
I think "Collen" works on a Thursday to give him 2 days to pressure you into paying him back, before you discover on Monday that the deposit was a stolen cheque. By Friday he became very adamant to get our faxed proof of payment. His arguments for the urgency became more far fetched!
When we got tired, we just told him the truth and to forget it - and he stopped calling.
It seems SAPS must wait until he has successfully robbed a sucker before they can lock him up.

I think it is OK to supply banking dtails to these criminals -even if they are false. At least it would keep them busy and away from other victims for a short while.
So I kept him busy, he wasted phone and fax costs, exposed his illegal FNB account and lost his stolen cheque. Hopefully, that saved one other sucker from his claws.

SAPS:
The local police station yielded mixed results - they are too busy with physical cases to look into fraud.
CrimeStop at 08600 10 111 didn't answer - but came back later.
The Commercial Branch at (012) 393 2108 was very much interested and immediately sent men to me to collect the information and opened a case.
The Crime Intelligence Division was also interested to take the case.
The Banks' Sabric.co.za at 011 847-3151/28 collected all the info of the case.


Searching the internet revealed many similar cases over the last few years.
It sounds as if he was "Daniel" in the West Cape a while ago.
Apparently they also abuse SARS for such scams, or even any unknown business.

The background noise at "Collen" sounded like a busy call center - especially in the afternoon calls - could have been an internet cafe.
He sounded like a black man, speaking reasonable SA English but with a slurring "R" - almost like a Boland "brei" - that might indicate a French connection.
His cell number is/was 073-021-9458 - he still answered our calls on 25 Aug.
Feel free to call him to confirm the incident and give him any advice if you want to.
His fax2email number is 0866601162 at CoinTel
The "Telkom" fax he sent contains false phone numbers.



See also:
http://www.saps.gov.za/org_profiles/core_function_components/commercial/deposit_scam.htm