Victims warn against paying cash to wendy house scamsters

SOME Cape Town residents have fallen victim to scamsters from Gqeberha who claim to be selling wendy houses.

Darren Nel said his son was among those who fell for a scam by a company called Nutec/Wendy Houses on credit based in Gqeberha, when he wanted to have a place of his own.

“My son wanted the 6x6 wendy house, with the bathroom and kitchen and all electrical, minus cupboards. The deposit he had to pay was R2 000 and he was told to go to any Pep stores or Ackermans to make payment of the deposit,” said Nel.

He said his son deposited the money and sent the proof of payment and the company got back to him to say the materials would be delivered on September 7 at 4pm.

Nel said when he tried contacting them at 4.30pm to enquire why the delivery was not made he found that they had blocked him.

Nel said his son thought because the payment was through Pep stores it was legitimate, but “now knew never to pay for something via CashSend”.

He said he contacted them pretending to be a prospective customer and they responded. He played along with them, asking them about insurance in the event that something happens to him and how they would be covered, since they would receive no further payments.

“They said they did not have insurance and would repossess the wendy house and that they has only repossessed four houses since 1991. That’s when I let them know that I was on to them, saying they have never built any houses as they are scammers who steal people’s hard-earned money and karma will be paying them and their families a visit soon,” said Nel.

He said he was blocked immediately and when he tried calling the number from work, it went straight to voicemail.

Cindy Ravens said her mother experienced the exact same thing with a business called Delta Housing.

She said her mother who is a pensioner and wanted a house for her (Cindy’s) brother, who did not have a place to stay.

“My mom decided to try the 3x5 Nutec house and was told by a man called David to go to PEP and deposit the first payment of R1 000. She did this and everything was sent to him and he promised delivery on Monday. Well needless to say, we’ve had no delivery and no correspondence again,” she said.

Ravens said the cellphone does not go through and her mother was blocked. When she tried to send them WhatsApp messages from her phone, she received automatic responses.

“Now R1 000 is gone, there’s less food for the month and still no place for my brother to stay. And they are still freely able to advertise on Facebook,” said Ravens.

When the Weekend Argus tried to make contact with both companies the paper also received the automated responses.