04 Feb 2018

Tlokweng Land Board authorities are worried over unsuspicious plot seekers who are swindled thousands of Pula by impostors parading as real estate agents.

Some of fraudsters are suspected to be masquerading as real estate agents who are genuinely helping clients to find plots in the village.

Tlokweng Land Board senior public relations officer, Mr Donald Tau in an interview said the land board has already been made aware of two identical cases which took place in December.

In both cases, the fraudsters managed to get hold of a customer’s customary land grant certificate and national identity card copy, which they forged and swindled unsuspecting customers.

Fraudsters were able to change the customer’s picture on the national identity card while leaving the names of the customer as inscribed in the original copy.

They were also able to forge the land board stamp and board members signatures, which left the forged copy looking authentic unless scrutinised against the original copy.

Mr Tau said the fraudsters have managed to swindle two people with the same copy.

“These people normally require a deposit in the process, mind you, plots in Tlokweng are very expensive due the village’s proximity to Gaborone, they can cost between P250 000 to P300 000,” he added.

He added that although it was illegal to sell undeveloped plots, people continued to place advertisement stating that they were selling empty plots, noting that only developed structures in a plot were illegible to allow a land transfer.

As such, he cautioned members of the community to be vigilant and not to fall into the hands of land fraudsters.

Mr Tau advised the public to approach the land board for any transaction before they exchange money in order to confirm the originality of the land documents, adding that it was disheartening to see people losing their hard earned cash to fraudsters.

He stated that the reported cases which bordered on forgery and obtaining by false pretense were already in the hands of the police. ENDS