The South African woman at the centre of a mobile phone sex scandal involving cricketer Shane Warne has been charged with extortion in her own country.

Helen Cohen Alon, 45, claimed earlier this week that the legspinner had pestered her with raunchy SMS messages.

A spokeswoman for South Africa Police, Mary Martins-Engelbrecht, confirmed that Gavin Varejes, an associate of Warne's, had made a charge of extortion against a 45-year-old woman.

"There's a guy who I believe is some or other associate of Shane Warne - I'm not quite sure what his relation is to Shane Warne - has opened a case of extortion against a 45-year-old woman," she said.

"The charges being laid is extortion, the police are investigating."

Ms Martins-Engelbrecht said police officially informed Ms Cohen Alon about the charges and took a statement from her on Thursday.

Police are investigating and will take the case to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

"They (the DPP) will make a decision on whether there's enough evidence to prosecute or not," Ms Martins-Engelbrecht said.

Ms Martins-Engelbrecht said the only charge that Cohen Alon had raised was for an alleged verbal assault made against her by another woman in a shopping centre earlier this week.

"As far as I know, this lady, Helen, didn't lay any charges with the police," she said.

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