South Africa has become notorious for the growing rates of scams and crime that people have fallen for, which research shows is highly motivated by socio-economic factors such as poverty and unemployment. South African media personality Shashi Naidoo has recently fallen victim to fraud after thieves stole her cellphone, and continued to wipe all of her bank accounts clean.
Former 20 Something presenter has taken to her Instagram to share the devastating news of falling victim to one of the most common crimes in South Africa. A work trip to her home country has ended in tears for the now Dubai-based personality. In the video, Shashi narrates the nightmare that began when her phone was stolen as she was leaving an event she was MCing.
Although losing a phone is inconvenient, Shashi paid no serious mind to the stolen phone as she knew she would be replacing it upon her return to Dubai. It was not until Shashi’s manager called her, stating that they were struggling with paying salaries for staff members that Shashi found out that the people who stole her phone managed to get access to her bank accounts and clean them out entirely.
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According to Shashi, the perpetrators not only took what was in her debit accounts which included money she made from selling her house, but they cleared her credit accounts as well which had approximately R500k worth of credit, which she had not used at all. Furthermore, they withdrew the money she had from her excess bond, leaving her with nothing in her account.
Shashi then provided an update a few hours later, revealing that a forensics team has been assigned to her case and they are working on getting to the bottom of everything as Shashi had reported the phone stolen minutes after it was taken.
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Netizens have placed the blame on the banks, highlighting how they should have flagged transactions for large amounts before the perpetrators could clean out the accounts.
How come the banks never flag or decline these suspicious transactions everytime these things happen haiboh, why is it so easy ???
— Speed Point Ngcobo (@ZeeRight) October 29, 2024
This incident has also given rise to the conversation about the growing rates of cases such as these, crediting South Africa’s current economic standing, which has resulted in unprecedented levels of poverty, which in turn results in higher crime rates.
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