It hasn’t taken long for the criminal element to exploit our rhino plight even further. There are a number of scams involving bogus fund raisers, even fake rhino horn being offered to gullible buyers out to make a quick buck.

South African National Parks (SANparks) have started a scam watch on their website sanparks.org and made the following statement:

It has come to our attention that a lot of people have been jumping on the rhino poaching and anti-poaching bandwagon for various reasons, of which the one we are concerned with in this page is the criminal intent.

There are individuals and syndicates which have tried to exploit the current heightened awareness around rhinos to either try to create illegal fundraising schemes or to sell bogus rhino horns to unsuspecting and gullible people with possibly criminal tendencies themselves.

This page is aimed at warning the honest member of the public from possibly being duped into parting with their well-earned income in a bogus scheme to extort money from them.  – Dr David Mabunda, CEO, South African National Parks