Around 70 000 people have used the Home Affairs department`s Web site in the past few weeks to check whether they are victims of a marriage scam.
The online service to verify a person`s marital status was launched several days into the department`s campaign to identify fraudulent marriages. The department says 17 000 people have gone in person to Home Affairs offices in the past month to check their status, while 70 000 have used the online verification service.
The 'Check Your Marital Status` campaign is being run to determine how many people have fallen victim to marriage fraud, in which foreigners allegedly use the ID numbers of single South Africans to fraudulently register a marriage, in order to gain work permits or citizenship.
So far, 779 people countrywide - among them a handful of men - have found they are fraudulently married to unknown people.
A total of 336 fraudulent marriages were recorded in Gauteng since the campaign started four weeks ago.
In the Northern Cape, out of 291 people who came forward, only two discovered their marital status had changed without their knowledge.
Related story:
Check marriage fraud online
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