Female con-artists on the prowl

SUSPECTED female con-artists are on the prowl in Rusape after an unsuspecting fuel attendant was conned of $3 500, while a student was duped of an undisclosed amount of money, cell-phone and clothes at service station in the town.

Luke Nhapi, a fuel attendant at Total (Kamba Chikara) Service Station was on Tuesday evening conned of $3 500 by two ladies after they had pleaded with him to help them with change for their $3 500 which was in $100 notes.

On Monday, the pair is suspected to have waylaid a St Joseph's High School pupil, Patricia Dhliwayo and conned her of a cell phone, cash and other valuables. The suspects told her that they were from Mozambique and could not speak fluent English.

They told the girl that they wanted her to negotiate a deal with a white doctor and they drove towards Pamugodo Lodge, where on arrival they asked the girl to disembark and meet the doctor. They told her to leave all her valuables in the cars, and sped off while she was looking for the said doctor.

As a result, the public is being urged to be on the look-out for masqueraders out to swindle them of their money on the pretence that they would offer them jobs or claiming that they want to change their money.

The unscrupulous individuals could be targeting busy service stations and retail outlets.

Rusape District police spokesperson, Assistant Inspector Tavhiringwa Kakohwa, said investigations were in progress.

"The public and businesspeople in Rusape are being warned that con-artists are on the rise in the town. They should not entertain unknown people asking for change.

"On Tuesday, a fuel attendant at Total Services Station, Luke Nhapi, was approached by two ladies. One was light in complexion, short and taut and the other one was short and dark in complexion. The two con-artists told him that they wanted change for their $3 500.

"Nhapi was given the $3 500, which were genuine and in $100 notes and he counted it. He gave them back the bunch after counting it.

"He was later given a similar bunch of counterfeit notes and thinking that it was the same bunch he had counted earlier on, Nhapi gave them the change they wanted in the forms of $50, 20 and 10 notes," said Asst Insp Kakohwa.

He said it was when Nhapi had returned to his office for verification that he realised he had been conned.

By then the tricksters had vanished into the darkness.

"It was when he returned to the office to verify the money that he found that the bunch only had one US$100 and the rest were one dollar notes, which cumulatively amounted to $136," said Asst Insp Kakohwa.

Last year, several unsuspecting job seekers were duped of thousands of dollars in a bogus recruitment exercise conducted by criminals masquerading as reps a certain NGO.

The unscrupulous individuals were reportedly operating outside banks, targeting and tailing those who would have made withdrawals.

A senior teacher at St Faith's High was tricked $600 by the criminals outside a local bank.

The unsuspecting teacher was approached by two men and offered a job to offload food consignment from the trucks at the rate of $20 per hour.

The teacher was asked to put all his belongings in an envelope.

He was given a similar envelope and discovered when the criminals had left that it was stuffed with papers.