South African prisoners running a voucher scam
South Africans should be wary of a years-old scam in which friendly con artists persuade them to buy airtime or digital services vouchers, promising to pay them back.
Private investigators previously found that one scammer, who often targets Afrikaans speakers, is operating from prison.
Pretoria resident Johan Viljoen recently complained that a “Deon Joubert” had scammed him out of R1,000.
Viljoen runs Piano Master and said the scammer had phoned him, urgently requesting that he tune his daughter’s piano for an anniversary.
On the way to the address, the scammer asked Viljoen to buy a R1,000 Blu voucher. They promised to pay back the money.
The Blu voucher can be used for a wide range of products, including gaming, airtime, data, insurance, gambling, and utility services.
When Viljoen arrived at the address the scammer claimed was theirs, no one answered the door. His calls to the phone number also went unanswered.
Viljoen warned others in a popular Facebook community group in Pretoria East about “Deon Joubert,” but several other group members pointed out that this was likely not the scammer’s name.
Screenshots of a WhatsApp conversation with the scammer showed they used a photo of well-known businessman Warren Buffett.
Viljoen explained that he is vision-impaired and could only make out that the person in the photo was an old man. He also said that the scammer’s fluency in Afrikaans made him more convincing.
A search on the call-screening app Truecaller showed that 11 people had reported the number as a scam.
Several Facebook group members said the modus operandi sounded similar to a years-old airtime voucher scam run by prisoners.
In the past few months, several community-focused news publications have also warned people in small towns that the scam had re-emerged.
In September 2025, the Standerton Chronicle reported that a scammer using the name “Dr Danie Coetzee” had resurfaced. In the past, the scammer had also gone by “Oom Fanie.”
“For years, the scammer has used the same trick,” the publication said. “He phones people, speaks politely, and promises them free meat or requires services from the business.”
“To gain their trust, he pretends to be a local businessman or farmer. Once the victim believes him, he pressures them to buy prepaid airtime vouchers and send him the PINs.”
The publication said the scam had already cost Standerton locals thousands of rands and warned people not to buy vouchers for strangers.
Prisoners involved in previous cases
The Middelburg Observer has reported comprehensively on an Afrikaans scammer it dubbed the “airtime thief” for more than seven years.
In 2019, it reported that National Crime Assist private investigator Ben Almero traced the numbers used in the scam to two prisoners in Delmas.
One of the prisoners was serving a 20-year sentence for murder. Following the discovery, the inmates were moved to another prison.
However, in 2021, SA Community Watch founder David Wessels established that the scam was being run from another prison.
The same prisoners subsequently admitted they were making thousands of rands with the scam. They were not concerned about being caught, as they already had lengthy prison sentences.
The Middelburg Observer again warned the scam had resurfaced just a few weeks ago, with the fraudster going by “Oom Jan” stealing money from two desperate jobseekers.
Correctional Services Minister Pieter Groenewald has identified the presence of cell phones in prisons as a major problem, as they are used to continue committing crimes.
Infamous prison escapee Thabo Bester is a high-profile example. Bester ran a multi-million rand scam media business while serving a sentence for rape and murder at the Mangaung Correctional Facility.
His access to a phone not only helped him run the scam but also enabled him to bribe prison wardens and communicate with accomplices during his escape in 2022.
Under Groenewald’s tenure, the department initiated wide-scale unannounced raids to confiscate contraband. In 2024 alone, it seized over 41,000 cellular devices.
It also identified 64 correctional services officials implicated in the smuggling of contraband into prisons. 16 of them were dismissed and 11 criminally charged, while 37 were still under investigation by early 2025.
In August 2025, Groenewald revealed that the department had started a pilot to test the deployment of advanced signal blockers in priority prisons to disrupt cellular communication.
The minister explained that older signal blockers affected the surrounding community’s access to wireless services, but newer technology allowed for more targeted intervention.
Loading ...