Free State police spokesperson, Mmako Mophiring, says the man was arrested on Thursday, 30 December, after two complainants approached police claiming to have been defrauded by the accused.

After tracking the suspect to the Harrismith taxi rank, police proceeded to apprehend and search the unnamed man.

Mophiring says 29 fake dollar notes were found and seized. The suspect will appear before the Harrismith Magistrate’s Court on Monday, 3 January on charges of fraud.

Concerns are continuing to be raised over the rise in fraud in South Africa albeit that it is online/ecommerce fraud that is most prevalent.

Globally 17.5% of all global e-commerce transactions are believed to be fraudulent, 3.7% higher than last year when it was 16.8%.

TransUnion’s fraud analysis report for South Africa reveals that during the start of the holiday shopping season and entire year from 2019 to 2021, suspected fraudulent transactions totalled 16.6% in 2021 and 17.8% in 2020.

OFM News