Early in August a colleague told me that one of our clients, Test and Measurement Instruments, had just been the victim of a sneaky fraud. So I called Joe Dos Santos to learn how these characters work. Joe was eager to share his story and we would like to make all suppliers in the industry aware of this scam. Here is Joe's story:
The scam
"We were approached on a Friday by someone claiming to be from Zimbabwe and urgently needing equipment to be sent via weekend transport to Zimbabwe. The purchasers requested that a pro forma invoice be faxed to a local fax number, with banking details, so that cash could be deposited.
The office received a call stating that the fax was not very clear, requesting confirmation of the details. Thereafter, a fax was sent to us with a physical address at the corner of Leyds and Harrison Streets in Johannesburg, with two cell numbers, and a confirmation of a deposit into our bank. It specifically indicated a cash deposit and indicated cleared funds. The office checked on the Internet and verified that the transfer was made - but did not notice that it was a cheque payment.
The purchasers made arrangements to collect the items at the office after hours when everyone of importance had left on the Friday afternoon - also after banking hours so that the banks could not be called.
(It turns out that this enquiry was also made to a company in Cape Town for collection in Johannesburg, and another local company was caught out in this way about five months ago.)
On the Monday the cheque bounced, and it seems that this account was closed, but we are still in the process of retrieving the cheque (at time of writing - Ed). It turns out that the fax we received was sent from Saudi Arabia."
A fraud case has been opened, and Joe requests that anybody being approached in a similar manner should contact him as soon as possible on his cell: 082 562 2242. Any assistance in this regard will be appreciated.
This issue highlights
* Thermographic cameras have come down in price, but are still not cheap by any means. R&C Instrumentation shows how to go about getting the best value from your camera in 'Thermographic maintenance'.
* First BEE and then BBBEE... can make some folk a little edgy... Maurice McDowell takes an encouraging look at BBBEE in 'Moving towards broad-based black economic empowerment'.
* For those interested in the nuts and bolts of tribo-electric dust sensing, Environmental Process Analytic's article goes into considerable detail in 'Characteristics of tribo-electric dust sensors'.
John Gibbs - editor
Send your letters to the editor: john@technews.co.za
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Electronic components: www.ebg.co.za
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