Dead maid scam

We survived a scam attempt this morning. We were at first very sad, then hopeful but anxious and now delirious with joy. Our maid, Mavis, is still alive.

And I discovered another gift, I can talk to people beyond the grave on my cell phone. Must be a new service from MTN that I did not know about.

Mavis, our maid, is part of our family and we were very shocked this morning when someone who called himself her "son" informed us that she died in a taxi accident near Pietersburg last night.

I even spoke to her so-called "husband". It did not take them long to request some "help" of +- R 9 000. I was even given a choice of banks to pay the money into. I was shocked and asked for some time to think about it as it was a lot of money. I was prepared to help unconditionally but needed to gather my thoughts as we were very shocked about the news.

For some or another reason my wife, Naomi, phoned our neighbour and mentioned this thing. The neigbour warned us that it could be a scam as they tried something similar with her and she did not even have a maid. Naomi remembered that the same thing happened to her sister about a year ago, which she confirmed.

The scamsters phoned me back as they were keeping us under pressure. When I told them that I needed to go to the bank on Monday to organise the money they hung up.

I eventually got through on Mavis' cell phone but her husband answered and said she was out shopping. I asked if she was OK which he confirmed. At this stage I was still a little bit unsure and asked him for her to call me back as soon as she gets back from town, which she did.

So - I can either talk to the dead on my cell phone or Mavis is really still ALIVE.

Nevertheless we are all very relieved.