Cape Town - The City of Cape Town’s Directorate for Urban Mobility is cautioning metro residents not to fall prey to a free transport scam making the rounds on social media platforms.
The City department, which oversees the operations of the MyCiTi bus service, said it recently became aware of the scam, falsely offering free MyCiTi travel and discounted bus cards on Facebook.
Commenting on the hoax, Urban Mobility mayco member, Rob Quintas, said the City was aware of the Facebook page called “Cape Town public transport card” with a following of 76 people, promising six months of free travel on MyCiTi.
“This is a fake page and is not in any way endorsed by the City. These fraudulent posts are circulating on Facebook and other social media channels,” Quintas said.
He said the MyCiTi bus service was not running any promotions and that all information about its services would be communicated through official MyCiTi social media channels, the MyCiTi website (www.myciti.org. za)and on the City of Cape Town’s website (www.capetown.gov.za).
“While we have reported this account and its contents to Meta/ Facebook and requested the urgent removal of posts, residents are urged not to interact with the post and to report it as fraudulent activity or false advertising,” he said.
The City also called for residents to be wary of social media posts that seem “too good to be true” and to apply due diligence before clicking share or subscribing to such competitions.
Following its statement on the MyCiTi bus rides scam, the municipality shared tips that members of the public could use to avoid getting scammed online.
The list of tips included advice to: • Always verify the identity of the account or user sharing a post before interacting with it.
• Only trust information from official sources.
• Do not click on suspicious links or share sensitive information unless you are sure it is a secure, trustworthy source.
Cape Argus