Students warned of accommodation scams

Students who are looking for accommodation in Potchefstroom have been warned against online scams offering accommodation, especially on Facebook. 

According to Lesego Gaobuse, an education student at the North-West University (NWU) Potchefstroom campus, certain individuals target students on Facebook pages like Help A Fellow Pukke and NWU Potchefstroom campus updates. The scammers allegedly post on student’s Facebook group chats, claiming to have accommodation, and asking students to send them direct messages for further information.

According to sources who spoke to threestreamsmedia, the scammers put pressure on students to pay a deposit fee to not lose the accommodation, only to defraud them.

Jessica Malatji (20), a second-year BA Law student, told threestreamsmedia that she was defrauded by a woman on Facebook in late 2021 when she was looking for a new place to move to for the remaining  months of 2021 and for the 2022 academic year.

Malatji said she did not know how things worked, so she used Facebook to look for accommodation in Potchefstroom. “I did not have Facebook at that time, so I used my friend’s Facebook account instead to look for accommodation, as I had to move out of my previous place,” she said.

Malatji said she used the Potchefstroom Accommodations Facebook group chat. She said users suggested that she contact a lady named Candice. 

According to Malatji, Candice claimed that accommodation was in high demand, and if she did not pay on time the room would be allocated to somebody else. “I suggested that she (Candice) could reserve it (the room) for me and I would pay over the weekend. She she could not secure a room for me without payment, because if I did not pay for it, it meant it could be given to someone else. 

Malatji said she was desperate, and so she had to ask her parents for money, which they did not have at that time. She said her parents had to borrow money just so she could secure the accommodation Candice had promised her. 

To date, Malatji said she had never seen the room she paid for. She said she tried to contact the alleged scammer earlier this year but it seemed to her that she had changed her phone numbers. However, she said a case has been opened against Candice. 

Accommodation scams in Potchefstroom have been around for some time. Amogelang Gabonnwe (23), who was in his first year at Vuselela Potchefstroom campus in 2018, said he was defrauded out of about R8 000 by a man who pretended to be an agent for a at a block of flats.

According to student campus council legal officer Cedric Nemakanga a prospective NWU student was also defrauded in December 2020. The student had allegedly paid for accommodation she had not seen and later asked the agent if she could view the place. The “agent” claimed to be busy and out of town.

Worried about whether the accommodation existed, the student sent Nemakanga a text asking about the agency. It was the first time that Nemakanga had heard of it. “Immediately, that made me suspicious,” he said and started his own investigation.

The map above shows students’ off-campus accommodation and housing agencies close to campus. MAP: Reitumetse Mooki

Speaking to threestreamsmedia, Nemakanga said that he had contacted the agent and pretended to be looking for accommodation. The “agent” asked him for an upfront deposit of R4 500 to secure a flat that was said to be in Molen street. “I did not agree to this but went to check the flat out. To my surprise, it did not exist,” he said. The “agent” has not been apprehend yet.