The pink fibre connection company, Vumatel, issued a warning today about a scammer doing the rounds. A man going by Sipho (or Lucky) Mahlangu has been posing as a representative of both Vumatel and a slew of fake ‘Wi-Fi’ companies and separating unsuspecting people from their money in exchange for services not rendered and/or fake hardware. (Maybe Vumatel will catch him one day using its own security cameras.)

Skermunkel

People have been defrauded by ‘companies’ called variously ‘Wireless Nerds’, ‘Your Wi-Fi Specialists’ and ‘Wi-Fi and Networking Specialists’… all of which are Mahlangu’s fronts for his fraudulent activities. Mahlangu plies his cons in areas where Vumatel has deployed fibre and has been known to pose as a Vumatel employee in addition to his positions at one of the aforementioned fictitious companies.

According to Vumatel, Mahlangu (if that’s even his real name) claims to be a technician and charges a call-out fee upfront (the first thing that should make alarm bells ring). Sometimes he advises his ‘customers’ that they require more equipment to improve their internet experience, like new Wi-Fi routers and wireless extenders. He charges unsuspecting people for this equipment and then disappears. In other instances, he has installed ‘equipment’ in homes but disappears as soon as they realise it doesn’t work.

Vumatel has advised customers to use its official channels online to find a real internet service provider and/or technicians… and if a Lucky Mahlangu comes a knocking, turn him away, unless you want to get unlucky, that is.