How to spot an auction scam before you pay

The scams that target auction buyers

Much auction fraud involves no auction at all: somebody borrows the look of a real auction house, advertises goods they do not have, and collects money before anything is delivered. The patterns repeat:

• Cloned websites and pages. A copy of a real auctioneer’s website, or a social media or WhatsApp Business profile using its name, logo and photographs, with the scammer’s own number and bank account. The SA Institute of Auctioneers (SAIA) keeps a list of pages that have impersonated its members on its scam advice page. It includes a Facebook page that used our name to offer cars at very low prices: that was not us. Our own Facebook page is facebook.com/DynamicAuctioneers.
• Pay to secure, view or register. A deposit sent by chat to “hold” a vehicle before the auction, a viewing fee, or a non-refundable “registration” or “admin” fee.
• Too-good-to-be-true vehicles. Recent models, usually described as bank repossessions, at a fraction of their value and a fixed price.
• Changed bank details. After a genuine purchase, a message that appears to come from the auctioneer or the conveyancer gives a new account for the deposit or the balance.

The South African Banking Risk Information Centre (SABRIC) does not break its figures down by auction, but its Annual Crime Statistics 2025 (covering 2025) describes the same mechanics: payments for goods never delivered, payments redirected by fraudulent changes to banking details, and artificial intelligence used to produce polished messages, images and voices. A professional-looking page proves nothing.

Red flags in the advert and the conversation

Any one of these is a reason to stop and check before you pay.

• The price. Far below what the same make, model and year sells for elsewhere, or a fixed price on an “auction” lot.
• Urgency. Other buyers waiting, an offer that closes tonight, pay now to stop it going to auction.
• A number you cannot verify. A WhatsApp or cell number that is not the one published on the firm’s own website or SAIA listing.
• No viewing. You are told you cannot see the vehicle before you pay, and that it will be delivered once you have paid.
• An account that does not match. A personal account, an account other than the one named in the auction’s own documents, or a request for cryptocurrency or vouchers.
• A thin footprint. No physical address you can find on a map, no landline, and a web address that is a near miss of a known firm’s.

By law, a full auction advertisement must state the date, place and time, the auctioneer’s name and where the rules of auction can be obtained, and remind bidders to register with proof of identity and residence (regulation 20(2)(c), (d), (e) and (h)(iii) of the Consumer Protection Act regulations, published 1 April 2011). Roadside signs and printed classified adverts need only the word “auction”, the date, place and time, and where the full advertisement is (regulation 20(3)). The rules of auction must be in writing, public at least 24 hours before most auctions, and give the auctioneer’s full names, physical address and contact details (regulation 21). Ask the auctioneer for them and for the conditions of sale; if it cannot send you either, do not pay. Ours are free on request (see our rules of auction page).

What a real auction may ask you to pay, and what it may not

The Consumer Protection Act auction regulations (GN R293, published 1 April 2011) and the auction’s own conditions of sale answer most “is this normal?” questions:

A bid from someone who has not registered is invalid (regulation 28(2)), so no real auction lets you skip registration. A sale before the auction can be genuine: goods may be withdrawn before an auction starts with the seller’s written permission (regulations 19(3)(a) and 24(j)), and on property we take online offers and pre-auction bids through our property portal. A genuine offer goes through the firm’s own system or documents; a price or “hold” deposit offered by chat, especially on a “bank repossessed” vehicle, is the warning sign.

For our online auctions you register and complete the FICA identity and address checks in our online auction room before bidding opens; for an on-site auction, phone 086 155 2288 for how to take part. Any registration deposit is refunded if you do not win, as that auction’s terms provide. See our guide to registering and bidding online.

Cheap “bank repossessed” vehicles

Vehicles are common bait, and SAIA’s scam advice deals with them directly. Never pay anyone until you have viewed and inspected the item in person; auctioneers do not ask for a deposit for viewing, only a refundable deposit to register to bid; and financial institutions sell repossessed vehicles on auction, not before it, with no pre-auction negotiation (SAIA scam advice).

The regulations also require a notice on every motor vehicle on auction, for the whole time it is available for inspection, listing among other things its registration, engine and VIN numbers and whether the odometer reading is guaranteed (regulation 32). Whatever the advert says, ask for the VIN, engine and registration numbers and match them to the vehicle and its registration certificate at the viewing. Our vehicle buying guide covers the rest of the checks.

One check is specific to us. Dynamic Auctioneers does not hold bank repossession contracts. Our vehicles come from liquidations, insolvent and deceased estates, business rescue, company fleet disposals and government disposal programmes (see distressed vehicle auctions). A “bank repossessed” vehicle offered in our name is not one of our lots.

How to check an auctioneer is real

Do these before you pay anything, a registration deposit included.

1. Find the firm yourself. Type the address you know or search for the firm by name, rather than following an advert’s link. Look-alike addresses add a hyphen or a word, or change the ending.
2. Check SAIA’s member list. The SA Institute of Auctioneers’ list of member auctioneers gives each member’s address, phone numbers, email and website: check that the details you were given match. For a firm not on it, SAIA says it cannot confirm its legitimacy. Membership is voluntary, though (the regulations ask for an auctioneer’s registration or licensing number only if registration becomes mandatory, regulation 20(2)(d)), so a missing listing means check harder, not fraud.
3. For property, search the PPRA. A property auctioneer that holds a Fidelity Fund Certificate should appear on the Property Practitioners Regulatory Authority’s Practitioner Search, which looks up practitioners and firms by name or by the PPRA’s own reference number, not by certificate number.
4. Check the company. A business selling through its website must show there its full name and legal status, physical address and telephone number and, for a company or other legal person, its registration number (section 43(1)(a), (b) and (f) of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act). The CIPC’s enterprise search, now on BizPortal and needing a login, shows whether that name and number are on the companies register, and the company’s status. The registered name may differ from the trading name: ours is Dynamic Solutions 1068 (Pty) Ltd, trading as Dynamic Auctioneers.
5. Check the domain’s age. The .co.za registry’s WHOIS check shows when an address was registered. Decades in business on a site registered last month is a warning.
6. Phone, on a number you found yourself. Use the landline on the firm’s own website or SAIA listing, and ask whether the lot, the auction and the bank account are theirs. For a sale in execution, confirm the sale and the account with the sheriff’s office: a website listing notices is not the sheriff (see sheriff auctions explained).

Check us the same way. Our credentials page gives our registered name, Dynamic Solutions 1068 (Pty) Ltd, registration number 2018/014769/07, SAIA membership no. CM0047 and PPRA Fidelity Fund Certificate no. 202505011000128, with the certificates (on the PPRA’s search, look us up by firm name). Our office is at 187 Gouws Avenue, Raslouw AH, Centurion; our phone number is 086 155 2288 (SAIA’s listing spaces the same digits differently), our WhatsApp number is 084 702 3766, and our email addresses end in @dynamicauctioneers.co.za. If a lot offered as ours is not on our upcoming auctions page, property portal or online auction room, phone us first.

Changed bank details and intercepted email

This scam targets genuine buyers after a genuine purchase. SABRIC describes business email compromise as criminals getting into an email account and writing as if they were its owner (SABRIC, How to Stay Safe). Knowing the amount and the deadline, they send “updated” banking details, apparently from the auctioneer or the conveyancer. SABRIC’s 2025 report says money taken this way was often withdrawn or moved on shortly after it arrived, and that unusual payment instructions by email, WhatsApp or telephone should be verified through a trusted channel before any money is transferred.

1. Treat any change of account as suspect, whatever the letterhead looks like and however close the deadline.
2. Phone the firm on a number you already have, from its website, its signed documents or the SAIA list, not from the message, which may reach the fraudster. Make the call yourself: SABRIC warns that criminals can mask the number a call appears to come from.
3. Read the sender’s address character by character. One changed letter, or .com in place of .co.za, is enough.

For our auctions, pay only into the account in that auction’s own documents. If any message, including one that appears to come from our office, gives you a different or new account, phone 086 155 2288 before you pay. The same goes for the conveyancer on a property transfer (see what happens after you win).

Safe payment habits

• Pay the right account, from your own. Pay by EFT from your own account into the account named in the auction’s own documents. The holder may be the firm’s registered company name rather than its trading name (ours is Dynamic Solutions 1068 (Pty) Ltd), or, on a property transfer, the conveyancer’s trust account. Check it by phone on a number you found yourself.
• Use the payment reference the terms ask for, such as your bidder number, and keep the proof of payment.
• Never pay a “release”, “courier” or “storage” fee to get a lot you have not won at an auction.
• Keep your logins to yourself. Never share a one-time PIN, password or banking login. SAPS advises that no bank will ask you to confirm or update your account details by email, and that you should never send money to anyone you do not know and trust (SAPS, fraud and scams).

If you have already paid

1. Phone your bank’s fraud line. Use the number on your card or your bank’s own website; SABRIC lists the main banks’ fraud hotlines on its How to Stay Safe page. Give the date, the amount and the account you paid into. Nothing guarantees recovery, but the sooner the bank knows, the better.
2. Open a case at your local police station, and keep the case number. SAPS asks people to report a commercial scam or a computer crime at their local station (SAPS cybercrime tips), and takes anonymous tip-offs on Crime Stop, 08 600 10111 (SAPS Crime Stop).
3. Keep the evidence. Screenshots of the advert and the chats, the web address, the phone numbers, the emails and your proof of payment.
4. Warn others. Tell the firm whose name was used, report the page to the platform it appeared on, and let SAIA know, as its scam advice asks. SABRIC also points the public to YIMA, which scans web addresses and takes scam reports.
5. Protect your identity if you sent ID copies or bank details: tell your bank, and consider protective registration with the Southern African Fraud Prevention Service. If your own email was used, change its password.
6. Be wary of rescuers. Anyone offering to recover the money for a fee deserves the same suspicion. If the amount is large, ask an attorney you found yourself, promptly, about steps to recover it.

If our name was used, phone us on 086 155 2288 (weekdays, 08:00 to 17:00) or send us a message.