They say you cannot teach an old dog new tricks, but when it comes to crime, criminals are always looking for new ways of exploiting unsuspecting victims.

This is indeed true when it comes to what has over the last couple of years become known as the deposit scam.

This time round, thugs disguise themselves as SARS officials, a name dreaded by many. No, not the virus, but the South African Revenue Service.

About two weeks ago, an estate agency in Makhado (Louis Trichardt) received a call from a man claiming to be from SARS. He said that an amount of tax money, R12 000 to be precise, had to be paid back to the agency and inquired about their banking details. This was given to the man, who only identified himself as Tim.

Later Tim faxed through a bank statement “confirming” that an amount of R120 000. He later phoned back and said that too much money had been paid over to the agency and that they should pay back the R108 000 “mistakenly” paid over. He also furnished the agency with bank details and an account number into which the money was to be paid.

Were it not for the alertness of the agency personnel, this story might have had a sad ending. But suspecting something fishy was going on, the estate agency queried the transaction at the bank. Fair enough, the statement showed that an amount had indeed been paid into their account – problem was that the payment had been made by cheque and was not an internet transaction as mentioned by Tim. Their suspicion grew as Tim only gave a cellphone number on all correspondence faxed to them, although the SARS logo appeared on all the letters. It was only after phoning the SARS office in Polokwane that it was confirmed that SARS was aware of this type of deposit scam.

Needless to say, Tim did not receive his money and the transaction was cancelled. Members of the public, especially business owners, are warned to be on the lookout for this type of scam.