Not even the dead are safe from fraudsters. The late Kwaito singer and dancer, Siphiwe "General" Sibisi, has not even been buried, but some people are already scamming his family. This is after a bogus lawyer, who claimed to be an advocate working with Universal Music called General's younger sister Zamo Mguli to ask for money from the family in return for help with insurance claims.
HE CLAIMED TO BE A TOP ADVOCATE
Mguli told ZiMoja that she received a call from the alleged scammer who claimed to be advocate Sekoto from Universal Music and said he couldn't talk to me because I was not listed as a beneficiary on Simphiwe's estate. She said he told her that he heard about her brother's passing and he was calling in connection with General's estate.
"He counted the list of people which included my brother Xolani as beneficiaries. I then decided to add my brother Xolani on the call," she said. Mguli said the bogus lawyer enticed them by telling them about money her late brother stood to benefit, including R300 000 that he is covered for. "He asked if we had already moved him to a different mortuary and we told him that we were not planning to move him. He gave us a name and said Universal will be moving Siphiwe's body too," she said. She said the lawyer asked the family to provide him with ID copies and proof of address and banking details, where he said the insurance money would be paid to. She said not even a minute later, he called and said there were penalties of R4 000 that needed to be paid before the money could be paid out. "I asked if he couldn't deduct from the estate and he said it has to be paid before. I decided to pay," said Mguli.
SCAMMED
Just an hour after Mguli paid the R4 000, she said the man called again informing them about tax issues. "He said there is an extra R800 for tax clearance that needs to be paid immediately, but for this one he claimed that it needed to be paid to another advocate in Pretoria, which I also paid into a different bank account," she said. Mguli said at that point they had not suspected any foul play. Another hour later, his intentions were revealed when they had to move the body from a Diepkloof government mortuary to a mortuary the man had claimed was used by Universal Music. "We asked him whom I am supposed to be meeting up with at the mortuary to move the body and he was no longer responding to me," Mguli added.
"I kept on calling but he was playing hide and seek. I eventually went online and searched the name of the mortuary he had said they were going to take my brother to. "They told us they did not know what we were talking about and there were no records of collection. My brother had no records," she said. She said while they were trying to make sense of the call, her bank called alerting her of a fraudulent transaction. "They told us this was all fraud. The first account I had paid money into was being investigated by the bank's fraud department. They said it is an ongoing scam. That is when it hit me that we have been scammed and this was fraud," she said. The late star will be buried this Saturday.