Reader Unathi Mbadamana  asked me to share this letter with you in the hope that you don’t get similarly caught:

“Good morning Martin

“I would like to share the experience I had with my friends in Long street Cape town. On Saturday 13 February, I went to Long street to fetch my friends from Germany. While I was waiting for him, a gentleman with foreign accent came to me asking for help. He said, he locked car keys in the boot by mistake and all his documents were in the car. He could not contact Grace hotel in Waterfront or get a taxi as he does not have money. The money he had were pounds and dollars but are in his hotel, room 212.

“He gave me this number 0799461977 to call for help. I called the number on my mobile and I asked them to call back which they did. This man identified himself as a doctor rushing to Groote Schuur. My friend arrived during that time and he saw the misery of this “tourist Dr” who was rushing to a meeting in Groote Schuur.  He gave him two hundred rand to take a taxi and they had an arrangement to get the money back.

“When we call the above number, it also identifies itself as Grace hotel but the so called Dr is always out of his room. Unfortunately the man ran away with the money however I want to warn people about this. We fell for this because we could see that the man is not from South Africa and he was desperate for help. Only to find out everything was a scam

“Can you do something to make this known to the public so that it does not happen to other innocent people.

” Regards - Unathi Mbadamana”