When a team of young soccer players arrived in Johannesburg to play in a tournament, their hearts were broken when the trip was exposed as a scam.

A fraudster organised the "tournament", taking R500 from each of the 40 boys' parents in Bloemfontein, then disappeared with the money before the four-hour trip to Johannesburg on Wednesday.

The "booked" accommodation turned out to be a sham and "the drivers hadn't been paid", said Darryl Currie, from the Randburg Community Policing Forum.

The drivers, whose consciences would not allow them to leave, took the children to a local police station.