Home burglaries are on the increase in Kraaifontein as is commercial crimes that more than doubled since 2019.
The third quarter crime statistics recently released reflect the number of crimes reported between October and December 2023.
Concerningly, a total of 180 home burglaries, and 21 house robberies were reported in the suburb over these three months, showing a 13.2% increase from the previous year.
Rob Bisset chair of Tygerberg Cluster Community Police Forum (CPF), and outgoing chair of Kraaifontein CPF ascribes this to the crime “red line” spreading across the N1 to the higher valued neighbourhoods in Kraaifontein.
According to another reliable source, crime syndicates use so-called bin scratchers who come into these areas, to spot out vulnerable homes and provide them with information.
Bisset says this is tricky to confirm, but recommends residents to become more aware, to get involved with neighbourhood or street watches and to up security at their homes.
“The police is heavily under-resourced and thus community policing is essential to stem the tide of burglaries,” he says.
Interestingly, only 15 business burglaries – 18 cases less than last year and eight business robberies were reported, a trend ascribed to heavy layers of private security at businesses. Theft of motor vehicles and theft from motor vehicles remain steady with 37 and 82 reported cases respectively. Fifteen cars, and one truck were hijacked over the three-month period, both crime numbers that have remained steady in comparison to last year.
With 132 cases, commercial crime in Kraaifontein showed an increase of Kraaifontein 21%.
Unfortunately, difficult to prevent, commercial crime is rising in South Africa due to tough economic conditions.
According to Western Cape police forensic investigator WO Stephan Wolfaardt, commercial crime has a negative impact on the economy which is detrimental to the free-market system and leads to individual hardships.
“Although preventative measures, such as awareness campaigns, are initiated by leading institutions the trends utilised by fraudsters similarly adapt accordingly,” he says.
The latest trends which have stood out over the rising number of reported fraud cases include card cloning through skimming methods, email interception, impersonation of bank staff, misrepresentations to advertisements, and forged proof of payments.
“With email interceptions, fraudsters hack software which plugs into an email server of an individual or company. A person will request a quotation, to which the suspect will intercept the email of the recipient, edit the banking details, and return the quote. Money is then paid into the incorrect bank account. In other cases, scammers contact their victims pretending to be fraud agents from their banks. They prompt you to go into your banking application to be assisted and then provide instructions to the victim, which leads togaining access to the bank account and having money stolen without the knowledge of the victim.”
Advertising misrepresentations occur when fraudsters respond to advertisements, saying they want to buy the item and will send a friend to collect it. “The fraudster then sends a forged proof of payment and the seller will hand over the item only to discover later that the payment was forged. Fraudsters use Uber drivers, pay them cash, and have the items delivered at an undisclosed location; thus, the police cannot trace the fraudsters.” Wolfaardt warns the public to be on the lookout for danger signs and to immediately contact the police if you suspect a scammer luring around.
