Conmen target charities

WELFARE organisations are warned to be on the alert for a group of con artists who appear to have marked the sector as an easy target.

The group reportedly swindled Cancer Association of Namibia (CAN) CEO Renette Koegelenberg out of an unspecified amount of money last year, in what she now considers ‘a lesson in life’.The CAN received a phone call at its Windhoek office from someone claiming to want to donate computer equipment and blankets to the organisation.The purported benefactor further claimed to be calling from another part of the country, and offered to bring the items to the organisation.Various phone calls and cellphone text communications were apparently exchanged between the organisation and the false well-wisher, to the point that Koegelenberg says the parties appeared to have become well acquainted.On the day that the items were to be transported to Windhoek however, the association received another call from the suspect, who went by the name of ‘Mr Richstein’.’Apparently their car broke down on the way, and they requested help in getting it back on the road,’ Koegelenberg said.The group even went as far as sending an apparent mechanic to the organisation’s offices to collect the money.’And that was the last we saw or heard of them,’ Koegelenberg said yesterday.She declined to reveal how much money was taken from her, saying that she has written the incident off.She has also decided not to lay criminal charges, she said, although CAN did issue a warning to fellow welfare organisations and members of the general public as a cautionary measures.denver@namibian.com.na