The South African Post Office has reportedly warned the public of a scam in which fraudsters claim a parcel can only be handed over to the customer after outstanding customs fees are paid.
According to Fin24, to convince the victim to pay money into the fraudster’s account, an email is sent to the unsuspecting client containing a fictitious parcel number not generated by the Post Office, as well as a link to a website where the customer can make a payment to “release” the so-called parcel.
The Post Office said it only sends customers an SMS or a collection slip when they have a parcel waiting for collection.
It said if there are any fees that a customer has to pay, the client only does so when they collect the parcel.
This comes as SABC reported on Wednesday that the Post Office has recorded financial losses of R1.7-billion and its current liabilities exceed assets by R1.49 billion.
The report said the Post Office is in the process of closing at least 130 of its offices across the country mainly due to financial challenges.
According to IOL, this was revealed by CEO Nomkhita Mona on Wednesday, May 26, as she responding to questions in the meeting of the communications portfolio committee in Parliament.
Mona said the closure of branches has been ongoing for a while.
“Our targeted number of branches to close is 130. This was for a lot of reasons, including a lack of profitability and the fact that there were too many within a short space of each other in terms of radius,” she said.
She added: “We are doing that in staggered form. The number is 80 to go. The target was 130. We have closed some of those.”
Picture: Twitter/@PostofficeSa