Cellphone fraud syndicate targets doctors
It is believed that the syndicate then uses this information and false identity documents to obtain top-of-the-range cellphones which are later resold on the black market.
On Wednesday, members of the Scorpions and the police's commercial branch visited Cecilia Makiwane Hospital in Mdantsane to obtain statements from doctors from whose salaries deductions have been made.
This followed after doctors contacted the two law enforcement agencies when they noticed irregular salary deductions by cellphone companies.
Commercial branch Superintendent Jericho Sani said two unemployed people from Mthatha have already been arrested in connection with a similar scam involving salary details from teachers.
Boniwe Mnukwa and Malusi Nompozolo were arrested in Mthatha and have already appeared in court on charges of fraud.
They are being held in custody pending bail applications later this month.
Sani said police have also confiscated teachers' salary advice slips and bogus IDs in connection with the case.
He said East London commercial branch Inspector Neil Hoffmann will visit Mthatha next week to compare details of the two cases.
Hoffmann confirmed that police have been receiving complaints from doctors about the scam on a daily basis.
He said at this stage complaints have been received from doctors working at the Cecilia Makiwane and Frere hospitals and the hospital in Stutterheim.
The investigation by the Scorpions has now been handed over to the commercial branch.
The bogus contracts with Vodacom, Cell-C, Nashua Mobile and MTN were concluded on the strength of the salary payslips of doctors as well as false identity documents.
Photographs had been replaced and minor changes made to the information on the documents.
One doctor, who wants to remain anonymous, said the quality of the fraudulent documents was "shocking".
He said one doctor had deductions for three cellphone contracts made on his salary slip.
Doctors, however, were instructed by the hospital authorities not to discuss the issue as an internal investigation was under way.
Health Department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said he was not aware of the present scam.
He said, however, that it appears to be similar to another scam that surfaced in the Kokstad area some time ago, when salary payslips of about 50 department employees had been stolen.
Kupelo said bogus life insurance policies were then concluded in the names of these employees.
He urged any department employee who has become victim to the latest scam to contact the department's risk management office.
The manager of a cellphone store in Oxford Street, East London, where one of the employees alerted police to some of the incidents, would not speak to the press.
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