Contact Me
Subscribe
Posts
All Comments
Search
Followers
Blog Archive
- ► 2012 (246)
- ► 2011 (708)
- ► 2010 (847)
About Me
- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
Black dollar scam makes many victims
14:12 | 
Posted by
A Stuijt |
May 26 2009 – Johannesburg. South African police captain Louis Helberg, who heads the country’s banking crimes section of the Commercial Crime Unit, is shown here with a safe full of 'black dollars'. Captain Helberg warns of this massive international scam, where crime syndicate members approach ‘ unsuspecting individuals and inform them of the availability of socalled “black dollars that can be cleaned with a certain chemical.”
Captain Helberg warns that their unit is concerned over the increase in reported incidents of these scams: these fraudsters are becoming bolder,” he warns.
The black dollar scam involves one crime syndicate member who first approaches ‘unsuspecting individuals’, informing them that there are 'certain chemicals’ which can clean so-called ‘black dollars’ which they have stored in a safe. The con artists will always use different stories but the underlying theme is the black dollars and other denominations, which can be ‘cleaned with a special chemical that only the fraudsters know about’.
Two Nigerians sentenced for black dollar scam:
In a recent case the Commercial Crimes Court in Durban sentence Nigerian nationals Justin Njoku(36) and Kenneth Ogbona(33) to an effective three and a half years imprisonment for this fraud and for possession of false passports.
- “Fled from Sierra Leone with large amounts of cash…’
- “On Thursday, 31 January 2008, both men had approached a hapless Pietermaritzburg resident with a story on how they had fled from Sierra Leone with large cash amounts of R2-million and $2,5 million. These bills ‘were stored on a certain ship docked at the Durban harbour,’ and, they claimed, ‘’ this cash was sprayed with a special ink and only they had the chemical to remove this ink.”
After showing their victim a sample of these ‘ black notes’ and how they cleaned it -- they asked him for R9,500 ‘to pay a bribe to the captain of the ship.’
- The con artist then gave the victim a bag in return, containing a safe such as the one pictured above, which purportedly contained "one million in black dollars’. But the excitement started to wear off when after parting with a further R60 000, the conmen were demanding even more cash for various reasons.
- When the victim realised that the men were conning him he contacted the police. Members of the commercial crimes unit set in motion an elaborate trap and the men were nabbed by detectives as they were about to "receive" more money from the victim.
- “Fortunately they were arrested before the victim parted with more money. It is important that members of the public take note of these scams and don't fall victim to these tricksters.”
‘Redirecting of payment’ for invoice-payment scam:
A second scam which also is on the rise, is the redirecting of payment scam, warns Helberg.
- Invoices of companies intercepted:
- “The fraudsters intercept invoices of companies and they then contact the company by telephone and e-mail purporting to be the supplier of services rendered. They claim that the supplier has changed account numbers and convince the company to make payment into the new account.”
He noted that in one case still under investigation In a case that's still under investigation, the fraudsters managed to trick a local company into parting with an amount in excess of R700,000 in this way.
- “The company only realised that they had been defrauded when the real supplier contacted them to query the non-payment,” he warns.
“We would advise companies or individuals who are confronted with similar situations to contact a person in the company that you have dealt with personally to confirm if there has in fact been a change in account details. Also check the company's letterheads and verify the contact numbers on these letter heads.”
He warned that while these fraudsters are very convincing, ‘we can do our bit by looking out for obvious clues as to a con.’
- Anyone confronted with such a situation must immediately contact the local police station or the South African Crime Stop number on 0860010111. Story posted by Senior Superintendent J. Naicker, cellphone 082 556 7865 http://www.sapsjournalonline.gov.za/dynamic/journal_dynamic.aspx?pageid=414&jid=15424
Labels:
