The virus outpost shared in July 2025 claimed a woman was arrested in South Africa for receiving financial support from eight men. This is wrong; the statement is a recycling scam starting in 2023. The woman in the photo was arrested for drug bust in 2024, and police said there was no child support scam as described in the Post.
“A 35-year-old woman was arrested for collecting child support from eight children (a different man of one child (So original text),” read a Facebook post published on July 12, 2025.
The post added: “Ms Nancy Mudau of Nzhelele Biaba of Limpopo has collected funds for 12 years from these eight (different people who thought they were fathers of the children).
The post has been shared over 4,500 times, further claiming that by the time the woman was arrested, the money had been used to pay for tuition, build the house and start building on the tavern.
Screenshot of False Facebook post, taken on July 21, 2025
Photos included in the post show a woman facing a South African Police Service (SAPS) van while also a police officer in uniform.
Tens of thousands of similar claims have been shared on media platforms including Instagram, Tiktok and X.
But the claim is wrong.
No cases
A reverse image search for the arrest photo shows that it was posted on the SAPS website on April 5, 2024, related to drug busts in Kimberley, a city in the northern Cape of South Africa (archived here).
“Three adult men, two South Africans and one Nigerian were arrested for possessing crystal myths, and one woman was arrested in Hartswater for possessing suspicious Mandrax films,” the police statement said.
Screenshot of the image on the SAPS website, taken on July 21, 2025
The false post claimed that the woman was arrested in Limpopo, about 1,000 kilometers from the Northern Cape, and the photos taken by the woman (archived here).
Limpopo police also told AFP fact checks on July 17, 2025 that they did not have an arrest match the description of the claim. “We don’t have this situation in Limpopo,” spokesman Malesela Ledwaba said in a WhatsApp message.
2023 scam
Searched on Google links “Woman from Nzhelele from Limpopo Nancy Mudau” and the keyword links to unverified articles in 2023, including on West African blog sites, including here, here, here.
The scam was reignited this year by a Facebook account called “Koos de Klerk,” which was created in June 2025 and often shares fake stories similar to ClickBait, with more than 197,000 followers.
Most posts in this account also link to websites seeking work or WhatsApp groups that ostensibly have the same task.
Screenshots show promotion for job seekers WhatsApp group
AFP fact checks have previously studied these job scam ads designed to take advantage of the unemployed to withdraw cash or steal personal data.
To verify job opportunities for advertising, always check the official website or LinkedIn page of the company or organization.
