The mother, who asked not to be named, says she lost a total of R5 000.
On Sunday, shortly after 11am, she went to the Capitec ATM in Vangate Mall to withdraw cash.
She withdrew R3 000 from her daughter’s account and went to Pick 'n Pay to buy bread, where a man in normal clothes and a police badge asked her if the bread was fresh.
“Then he showed me a bank bag on the floor with lots of money in it.”
She says the man told her to pick up the money and when she refused, he picked the bag up himself, and suddenly became aggressive and told her to face forward.
“I don’t know if he had a gun or what. I was too scared to look behind me. He just instructed me to walk and so I did, but then he made me walk out of the mall.”
Outside, a fancy black car stopped next to them.
“There were two guys also with police badges and they told me the cameras picked me up taking the money.
“I told him that it was not me and I don’t have the money.
SCAMMED: Vangate Mall
“Then he asked if I withdrew money at the ATM and I said yes and he asked to see it.”
He put the money in a brown envelope on which he wrote a “police case number”.
“He took down the details of my daughter’s bank card and gave me the envelope. I was so worried I just went home but when I opened the envelope I saw it was filled with newspapers and the money was gone.
“Later that day a R2 000 was taken from my daughter’s account.”
Vangate Mall spokesperson, Gouwa Waja-Stemmet, says a similar incident was reported at the mall in December last year.
Police spokesperson, Lieutenant-Colonel André Traut, confirms the incident is being investigated by Athlone police: “No one has been arrested.”
In February, a Kraaifontein pensioner was robbed of his Sassa grant after three “cops” told him they wanted to give him more money as he looked honest.
He was told to put his R1 500 into an envelope, on which a “case number” was written.
Instead of money, the pensioner was given a Game pamphlet.