Africa Melane speaks to Barry Fourie, national operations manager at Chas Everitt.
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Scamsters often pose as official government officials and also create fake social media accounts
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The email addresses used by fraudsters are often easy to tell apart from a legit business
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It’s common for scamsters to demand upfront payment to secure a property viewing
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The latest scam doing the rounds is a Whatsapp message requesting people to pay R2300 for government housing assistance
RELATED: Western Cape warns of social media scam claiming to offer housing opportunities
The Western Cape government has raised concerns over the latest housing scam doing the rounds in the province.
It’s an online housing scam, which appears to be targeting the most vulnerable of residents.
Specific areas targeted include Khayelitsha, Stellenbosch, Montana, Paarl and Mitchells Plain.
The Whatsapp message scam requests them to pay R2300 for government housing assistance.
Barry Fourie, national operations manager at Chas Everitt says they are definitely noticing an increase in property-related fraud.
So what are generally the tell-tale signs of a property scam?
Typically the big companies, we have our own email domain…but these scamsters would send you an email. They would advertise a property on a website, and they would send you an email from, let’s say ‘chaseveritt@gmail.com’.
Barry Fourie, national operations manager at Chas Everitt.
People are being asked huge amounts of money, sometimes R5 000, R10 000 just to secure a property viewing. If an agent asks you to pay any money, to view a property, that’s a scam.
Barry Fourie, national operations manager at Chas Everitt.
They are falling for it, and the reason that they’re falling for it is because we’re in such a buoyant property market, rental market. There are so many tenants, and there are not enough properties.
Barry Fourie, national operations manager at Chas Everitt.
When we get a property in, we almost immediately place a tenant in that property. So with tenants, there’s so much competition, they scared they going to lose the property. That opens the door for these scamsters to play on that fear of loss.
Barry Fourie, national operations manager at Chas Everitt.
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This article first appeared on CapeTalk : Local housing scam warning! The tell-tale signs to avoid falling victim
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