Durban — The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), an entity of the Department of Employment and Labour, has reiterated that services, including the processing of claims, are free of charge. This comes after the latest scam doing the rounds on social media.
“The fund will never request any money for services. Anyone who receives any message or information contrary to this, including the message that is currently circulating on social media, should suspect that it is an attempt of fraud,” said spokesperson Trevor Hattingh.
He said that in the latest message circulating, the scammers were claiming that an amount of R21 785 is ready to be paid out after a “UIF registration and clearance” amount of R298.67 is paid to them.
“For the record, UIF services are free and the fund will never request any money for services or claims. Anyone who receives the message about this latest fraud is urged to discard it immediately to avoid falling prey to these unscrupulous fraudsters.” H
e urged people who received such messages to discard them.
“The UIF is urging clients and the public to be vigilant and help the fund fight fraud and corruption by reporting it on the UIF Fraud Hotline: 0800 601 148, or the Department of Employment and Labour hotline: 0860 666 883, or alternatively, the National Anti-Corruption Hotline: 0800 701 701,” he said.
The UIF also posted the warning on its Facebook page and in responding to the post, a KwaZulu-Natal man commented that he had been scammed of R6 000.
“Tell me about it, I got scammed from people during the week,” said the man who also shared screenshots of the Facebook message he had received from scammers.
The Facebook message sent to him read: “Just your post in the group UIF best to try dana.viljoen@labour.gov. za 065 803 8228, she assisted me with payment and approval she charges a small fee but I was paid in full lumpsom in a few days try her dear I also had the same issue I waited over a year before getting help (sic).”
In January, the Department of Employment and Labour warned the public to be vigilant after it had noted with concern yet another scam titled “youth employment programme” promising the unemployed heaven and earth. In it, scammers promised to reward participants in the so-called programme with ridiculous stipends.
But, before this could happen a potential participant in the programme had to pay a deposit fee at one of the retailers and also furnish personal details. At the time spokesperson Teboho Thejane pointed out that the scam followed a number of other rackets in which members of the public were asked to pay in order to receive payouts.
The scammers also fraudulently used the Employment and Labour Minister TW Nxesi and the department’s social media accounts to swindle the public.
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