The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has expressed its concerns about recurring recruitment scams aimed at fleecing unsuspecting citizens.
In the latest incident, the SANDF said it has been alerted to another purported SANDF Reserve Force recruitment scam in circulating on various social media platforms intent on fleecing unsuspecting and vulnerable persons.
The scam also has a recruitment form attached to it, while the form is legit, it has not been issued by the SANDF.
“The form in circulation is a legitimate military recruitment form, but it was not issued by the relevant SANDF recruitment office. There is currently no official recruitment drive under way within the SANDF,” it said.
“Scammers have now resorted to luring desperate youths and their unsuspecting parents into disclosing or furnishing their personal details on this form. Personal information is then gained with the intention of defrauding unsuspecting citizens.”
It said criminals have deviated from their normal modus operandi in order to come across as being more legitimate.
“This is a deviation from the well-known modus operandi of asking for an application fee to make their advertisement look and sound legitimate,” SANDF said.
“The repeated deceitful acts by these unpatriotic faceless criminals, targeting our unsuspecting youths is abhorrently unethical, illegal and should be condemned by all law-abiding citizens of our country.”
The SANDF has reiterated that there are currently no official recruitment drives being conducted.
It also urged members of the public to report those scammers who may be known in communities.
“These unscrupulous criminals are known in the communities where they are recruiting from and the SANDF is encouraging those who may know these criminals to anonymously report them at the SAPS,” it said.
robin.francke@inl.co.za
IOL