How to Report a Scam in South Africa: Who to Contact and What Works

Most guides on how to report a scam in South Africa, or where to report fraud, give you a list of phone numbers. This one is different. It is written by someone who has been through it: a repair job that cost R4,000 and left the appliance still broken, a complaint that went from the bank to the police to the National Consumer Commission, and a telecom contract that took four months to cancel. Some routes worked. Most did not, and knowing why will save you time.

Treat every advert as a possible scam and research it from A to Z before you buy or sign up for anything. Know your rights before you start.

Below: two real cases, the one question that decides where your complaint goes, who to report to for each type of problem, how to deal with SAPS, and what to collect before you pay anyone, because afterwards it is often too late.

Case 1: the repairer who disappeared

We found a repair service through a local Facebook group. The adverts had plenty of glowing reviews. All of them turned out to be fake. The repairer did the job, we paid R4,000 by EFT, and the appliance was still broken. He offered a refund. It was never paid. The written guarantee was handwritten and, in the end, not worth the paper it was written on.

Here is what happened when we tried to get help:

• The banks. We contacted our own bank and the repairer’s bank. The repairer’s bank pointed us to SAPS.
• SAPS. The police said it was a service problem, not fraud, and would not help.
• The National Consumer Commission. The NCC took no action itself. It escalated the complaint and explained the next options: the Consumer Goods and Services Ombud or the Small Claims Court.
• The dead end. Both of those routes need a business you can actually reach. The company was registered with CIPC, but its registered address turned out to be a private home that had nothing to do with it, and a CIPC director search showed the same person behind several companies. With no real address, there was nobody to serve court papers on.
• Warning others. We reported the adverts to every Facebook group where they appeared. Most groups removed them. One group was run by the repairer himself, which explains how the fake reviews survived. After the reports, he phoned with threats of physical harm.

The appliance is still defective, and the money was never returned.

Case 2: the router that took four months to return

This one was not a scam, but it is the kind of consumer complaint many people face. A router bought as part of a package from a major telecom provider rebooted every 60 seconds. The provider’s own shop could not diagnose it, head office took a month to book the return, and getting the contract cancelled and off our name took from July to October, with calls going round in circles.

What finally worked was not the regulator. It was saying, clearly, that we would post a public complaint on Hellopeter and use every other route available. The next day the router was collected, and for the first time someone gave proper feedback.

Put the two cases side by side and you get a rule worth remembering: public pressure works on established businesses with a reputation to protect. It does nothing against a fly-by-night operator. Knowing which one you are dealing with tells you where to start.

First question: is it a crime or a consumer dispute?

This decides almost everything. SAPS investigates crimes. Consumer bodies and courts deal with disputes about goods, services and contracts.

• Fraud is, in short, a deliberate lie that causes you loss. According to this explanation of South African fraud law, it needs an unlawful, intentional misrepresentation that causes actual or potential prejudice. Fake reviews, a fake business address, a refund promised with no intention of paying, a shop that never delivers: these can all point to fraud.
• A consumer dispute is when a real business does a bad job, sells you something faulty or refuses a refund it owes you. That is unfair, but it is usually not a crime.

Many cases are both, like our repair job, and that is where people get stuck. If the police say “it’s a civil matter”, the section on SAPS below explains what to do.

Do these five things first, whatever happened

1. Call your bank immediately if you paid by card or EFT, or shared banking details. Speed matters more than anything else. Ask whether the payment can be stopped, recalled or disputed.
2. Save everything now: screenshots of the advert, reviews, profile and group, chats, call logs, voice notes, quotes, invoices and proof of payment. Adverts and profiles disappear quickly.
3. Write a short timeline while it is fresh: dates, amounts, what was promised and by whom.
4. Report the advert or profile to the platform and the group admins, so others are warned.
5. Ignore anyone who offers to get your money back for a fee. These recovery scams target people who have just been scammed.

How to report a scam in South Africa, by type of problem

Money taken from your bank account, card fraud, EFT scams or SIM swaps

• Your bank’s fraud line first, immediately. For a SIM swap, also call your cellphone network.
• Open a case with SAPS and give the case number to your bank.
• If your bank handles the complaint unfairly, the free National Financial Ombud Scheme has taken complaints about banks, credit and insurance since March 2024, replacing the old banking, credit and insurance ombuds.

A business that didn’t deliver, a bad repair or a refused refund

• Complain to the business in writing first and keep a copy. The Consumer Goods and Services Ombud (CGSO) asks you to give the supplier 15 business days to respond.
• Then the CGSO. It is free, handles complaints from e-commerce and telecoms to appliances and furniture, and aims to finish within 60 business days.
• The National Consumer Commission investigates and enforces the Consumer Protection Act, but, as we found, it is not a small claims court or a debt collector. It may refer you to an ombud or another body first.
• The Small Claims Court handles claims up to R20,000, and you can’t use a lawyer, which keeps it simple. Send a letter of demand first (registered mail is best) giving 14 days to pay. You will need the full name and address of the person or business you are claiming from.
• Repairs: under section 57 of the Consumer Protection Act, new or reconditioned parts fitted during a repair, and the labour to fit them, carry a three-month warranty, on top of any guarantee you were given. Mention it in your complaint.

If the business is a registered company but its address is false, ask the Small Claims Court clerk how to proceed using the company’s registered details on CIPC. Companies are required to keep a registered address, and the clerk can tell you what the court will accept.

Cellphone, internet or contract problems

Complain to the provider and get a reference number. Under ICASA’s procedure, the provider has 14 working days to resolve it. If it doesn’t, or the answer is unsatisfactory, lodge a written complaint with ICASA, quoting the provider’s reference number. Many telecom complaints can also go to the CGSO.

Fake investments, trading platforms and crypto

Check whether a provider is authorised on the FSCA’s FSP register or by calling the FSCA on 0800 110 443. Report unauthorised operators through the FSCA’s fraud hotline on 0800 313 626 or fsca@behonest.co.za, as listed in its January 2026 warnings. Report losses to SAPS and your bank. See our guide to fake investment and trading apps.

Someone using your identity

Apply for free Protective Registration with the South African Fraud Prevention Service (SAFPS), which alerts its member organisations to take extra care when your details are used. It is worth doing after a lost ID, a data breach or a phishing attack. Report identity fraud to SAPS too.

Holiday, flight and travel scams

The Financial Intelligence Centre advises victims to open a SAPS case, report to the bank used for payment with the case number, and report to the National Consumer Commission. Our guides on holiday accommodation scams and fake flight tickets cover these in detail.

Threats or harassment after you report

A threat of physical harm is a criminal matter in its own right, so report it to SAPS even if they won’t touch the money dispute. Before you block the number, save the call log, messages and any voice notes.

You can also apply for a protection order under the Protection from Harassment Act at your nearest magistrate’s court. The process is designed so you don’t need a lawyer, it covers threatening electronic communication, and the court can direct a cellphone network or SAPS to help identify a harasser you only know by phone number.

Going to SAPS: what to expect and what to say

Expect to be told it’s a civil matter. Go prepared anyway. According to SAPS National Instruction 3 of 2011, as summarised in this June 2026 report, officers must interview you to establish whether an offence may have been committed, may not turn you away because you don’t know the suspect’s name, and may not send you to another station because the crime happened elsewhere.

• Describe the deception, not just the bad service. Explain what was false: fake reviews, a false address, a refund promised and never paid, a business that disappeared. That is what turns a “service problem” into possible fraud.
• Bring printed evidence and your timeline, with proof of payment and the account the money went to.
• Ask for a case number. It matters beyond the police: banks and other bodies often ask for it. Police can also obtain account information from banks through legal processes, such as section 205 subpoenas, that ordinary members of the public can’t use.
• If you are refused, ask for the station commander or senior officer on duty, note the officer’s name and rank, and escalate to the SAPS National Service Complaints Centre on 0800 333 177.

Public complaints: when they work

Hellopeter and similar sites can get fast results from established businesses that care about their reputation, as our router case showed. Keep your post factual, stick to what happened, and include your reference numbers. Against a fly-by-night operator, a public complaint mostly serves to warn others, which is still worth doing.

If I could do it again

• Get the repairer’s or seller’s full name, business name, registration number and physical address before paying.
• Pay a registered business by card, not EFT to someone I can’t trace.
• Check whether the reviews come from real people, and whether the same few names praise the same business everywhere.
• Insist on a proper written quote and guarantee from the business, not a handwritten note.
• No more Facebook or WhatsApp group recommendations. Research online and find reputable, established businesses instead.

Before you pay anyone: collect these details

• Full name of the person, and the business’s registered name
• Company registration number, checked on CIPC (a director linked to many unrelated companies is worth noticing)
• A physical business address you have verified, not just a phone number
• A written quote, invoice and guarantee on the business’s letterhead
• Payment by card where possible, to an account in the business’s name

These details are what every complaint route will ask for later. Without them, as we found, you may have nobody to complain about.

Where AdUncovered fits

Before you pay a business you found through an advert, run its website or listing link through our free Quick Check. It is a quick, shallow screen, so a clear result is not a green light. For a larger amount, a Comprehensive Report looks at the business side: whether there is a registered business behind the name, where its details and website appear elsewhere, and how long its online presence has existed, with every finding linked to its source.

If you have already paid, a Comprehensive Report can document what is publicly known about the business, which you can attach to a complaint to your bank, SAPS, the CGSO or the NCC. We don’t certify businesses, give verdicts or recover money. We give you the evidence so you can decide what to do next. For the first hours after a scam, see what to do immediately after being scammed.

This article provides general information about reporting scams and consumer complaints in South Africa. It is not legal advice; for a specific matter, speak to the relevant body or a qualified attorney. Sources are linked beside the claims they support and were checked in October 2026; contact details and procedures can change, so confirm them with the body concerned. The case studies are first-hand accounts shared with AdUncovered, with identifying details removed.