{"id":627047,"date":"2026-01-29T12:02:27","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T10:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=627047"},"modified":"2026-01-29T12:03:32","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T10:03:32","slug":"capitec-fraud-warning-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/security\/627047-capitec-fraud-warning-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Capitec fraud warning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Capitec has warned about deposit scams in South Africa, through which scammers advertise products online at attractive prices and demand deposits to secure the product at that price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to Cape Talk, Capitec’s head of financial crime, Nick Harris, and head of CSI and financial education, Jean Rossouw, detailed the risks associated with deposit scams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s definitely the most popular one [scam] that we’ve seen if we look at our fraud stats, not just in Capitec, but in South Africa in general,” Harris said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What we see is criminals advertise fake items or services and convince victims to pay a deposit to secure these deals.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained that these adverts are placed on popular platforms like Facebook Marketplace with very attractive prices, usually for products in high demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Things like vehicles, vehicle auctions, iPhones, PlayStations, laptops, appliances,” Harris said. “We saw a huge spike in December around holiday accommodation.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He gave an example of someone booking seaside accommodation in Durban, only to arrive to find that the accommodation doesn’t exist or is already occupied by someone who booked it legitimately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harris added that other ads typically posted by scammers are for secondhand furniture and household appliances, such as fridges. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the deposits requested are often small enough not to raise potential victims’ eyebrows. He gave an example of a R2,000 deposit to secure a deal on a R80,000 car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Digital platforms really create this instant access to thousands of potential victims. So, it’s such an easy scam to deploy,” Harris said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s low effort, high reward, and often victims feel embarrassed. They don’t come forward, don’t report it, and these guys just keep on scamming people.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rossouw explained that even tech-savvy consumers fall for these scams, as fraudsters play on human emotions and behaviour rather than on technical ignorance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Con” is for confidence<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Rossouw explained that consumers typically fall for deposit scams for several reasons. Firstly, fraudsters apply psychological pressure to get victims to commit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Scammers would create urgency. Like, I have other buyers ready to pay today, or stock scarcity, or there’s only one listing left for December accommodation,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There’s the fear of missing out on a rare bargain on a car or a smartphone.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rossouw added that consumers generally trust what they find themselves. For example, they search for a secondhand iPhone 14 and find a scammer’s listing that appears genuine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What we should remember is that simply searching on platforms like Facebook Marketplace exposes customers to scam listings that are deliberately designed to appear in search results,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Just because consumers initiated the search, they feel like they’re not being targeted, but scammers know that.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She explained that the third factor, which she described as being very important, is the marketplace credibility illusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The platform feels safe because everyone is using it. The profiles look real, the people are friendly and active, and some scammers can even post or pay for their fake ads,” Rossouw said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Therefore, passive searches are just as vulnerable as people who are actively posting online.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She highlighted red flags that South African consumers should watch out for, such as prices that are significantly lower than similar listings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In the case of accommodation, no in-person visits are allowed. They typically give excuses like I’m travelling, or I’ve relocated, or there are people in the accommodation at the moment,” Rossouw said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Pressure tactics are a favourite. I have another three buyers ready to pay. You need to pay now, or a deposit is required immediately into a personal bank account.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rossouw said other red flags include listings from new or empty profiles with little activity and near-perfect photos, which they’ve likely stolen from legitimate listings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Capitec says it has seen an uptick in deposit scams targeting South African consumers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":615027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[5334,103061,67642,103062,103060,103059],"class_list":["post-627047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security","tag-capitec","tag-deposit-scam","tag-facebook-marketplace","tag-fake-marketplace-listings","tag-jean-rossouw","tag-nick-harris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627047"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627047"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":627081,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627047\/revisions\/627081"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}