Note: We are at Heathrow Airport in London as we put together today’s post. We wrote the content yesterday after the event occurred.
I don’t know where to begin.
We’d decided to leave early for the airport in case of issues on the N4. I’d downloaded an app on my phone that provides up-to-the-minute notifications if there are problems along the highway on our route.
Everything was going smoothly until about 20 minutes before we arrived at the Mpumalanga/Kruger/Nelspruit Airport. We stopped, as usual, at the same petrol station we’ve used dozens of times to refuel the rental car at this last petrol station on the way to the airport.
Tom had the fuel topped off. As we were leaving the station, an employee, one of many employees who were wearing high-visibility vests with “security” emblazoned on the front and back, approached us and said the following:
“There’s been a bad accident on the road to the airport, and the road is closed. But they are letting people heading to the airport get through using a token. You must return to the petrol station to buy the token.”
Patrons stood in line at a bank of four ATMs while these “supposed” employees assisted them in getting the token using a credit or debit card.
Tom didn’t know our South African SIM phone number, and the two cards he tried didn’t work. At this point, he became very suspicious.
Suspecting it was a scam, he left the station to find me waiting in the car, as worried as I could be, for at least 30 minutes. I was so relieved when I finally saw him walking toward the car.
He explained what happened and said, ” It was a scam. Let’s head to the airport. There won’t be an accident or a road closure. ”
He was right. We breezed down the road for the final 20 minutes to the airport, but he kept saying we needed to call those two credit card companies and cancel the cards.
When we checked in for the flight, we finally had time to call both credit card companies. One of the cards was charged over US $2745, ZAR 48985, to an investment company. However, the credit card company suspected it was a fraudulent charge, and they put a hold on it, waiting for Tom to call to see if we’d approve of the charge.
Fortunately, Tom called both cards in time to cancel them. The two new cards will arrive in the mail in the US while we are there.
This post is a warning to all travelers on their way to or from the Nelspruit Airport. But this type of scam could happen anywhere in the world.
Tom is not naive and is a very savvy traveler. But as tourists, we aren’t always aware of how things are done under certain circumstances in a foreign country. At first, it was easy to think that such a token was a normal process on a busy highway.
We’ll be back at our next opportunity.
We board the next flight from Heathrow to Minneapolis for another nine-hour flight. The flight to London was over 11 hours. We didn’t sleep more than a few hours off and on. Now we are waiting with a five-hour layover, with only two more hours to go. We both feel surprisingly well.
Be well.
Photo from ten years ago today, May 25, 2015:
