Have you fallen for a 419 scam?

BBSA

BBSA

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When Swedish businessman Kenth Sadaaki Suzuki flew into South Africa 11 days ago, he was thinking of the massive investment deal he would clinch.

But less than an hour after his arrival at OR Tambo International Airport, he found himself in a Rosettenville house and held for a ransom of about R220 000.

Five days later, Japanese national Osamai Hitomi suffered a similar fate, after being lured into the country in much the same way.

But the promise of the massive investment fell through on his arrival and he too was taken to a house, in Alberton, where he was tortured and held to ransom for $5-million (about R40-million).

'They are constantly innovating their methods'
Suzuki and Hitomi were the latest victims of the globally notorious 419 scam to be kidnapped in less than one week, fuelling suspicion that the scam was targeted at duping wealthy international businessmen.

But Superintendent Pieter Allen, commander of SAPS' commercial crime unit 419 task team, reveals that only half of the victims being fooled by these scams are tourists - and that it is locals more and more who are falling prey.

Allen said that there had been a dramatic increase in the number of cases involving South African citizens being conned.

Although Allen cannot quantify the number of cases, he says that this year has seen the caseload double so far. In recent years, 419 scams have netted well over R100-million in South Africa.

"Its not only people from overseas that are targeted. Around half the complaints the unit has received this year are from South Africans alone," Allen says.

'These people caan sweet talk anyone'
According to Allen, there are cases registered all over the country but the bulk of the cases are located in Gauteng.

Following the latest incidents involving Suzuki and Hitomi, police have gone on high alert, warning investors to be aware of the these types of scams and contacting embassies to warn any potential visitors seeking visas about the dangers of the 419 scams.

But Allen says that it is a very hard scam to monitor as 419 scammers are always trying a lot of different scams and were constantly changing their modus operandi.

Based on the volume and severity of cases received, the commercial crime unit has opened a specialised unit to focus on the scams, which has been operating for the past two years.

The unit receives up to 100 e-mails a day in connection with these scams.

"We have to keep ourselves up to date with the emails that are being circulated. We receive e-mails from across the world. Based on the traffic received in the mail, we can monitor what is a new scam.

"There are different ones. There's the UK lotto scam, the 2010 scam, the inheritance scams and various business deals.

"They have different modi operandi and they are constantly innovating their methods," Allen explains.

In one of the latest schemes people receive calls telling them they have won a Land Cruiser from Kenya. His list of people who have been conned include lawyers, advocates, doctors, pensioners and students.

"It's all over the spectrum. These people can sweet talk anyone. There is no specific person they target. They can sell almost anything."
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link

Seems like the Nigerians has moved to SA:mad:
 
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Wow, funny you post this now.

I received this load of BS SMS just a few minutes ago (never had anything like this sent to me before and certainly not on my cell):

"Your mobile no have won 1,000,000GBP in the 2008 Nokia Mobile Promo. For claims;send (Name,Mobile no & Address) to claimsprXX@[B]gmail.com[/B] & Call +44 XXXXXXXXXX"

You'd think a high profile company giving away a million pounds may just want to consider using semi-decent grammar. A Nokia email address couldn't hurt either. :rolleyes:

Anyway, sent this to a friend at Nokia if for nothing else but a good laugh.
 
I'm sorry for their losses, but you really have to be some kind of nincompoop to fall for something as obvious and as stupid as this. Partial blame has to be laid on these idiots for falling for this.
 
I propose this as a solution. Government spends a few million on advertising about these scams. Some TV, some radio and some billboards etc. America calls them Public Service Announcements. In these ads, explain the different types of scams, how they work, the types of messages etc. Educate the stupid, greedy people a bit. Soon the Nigerians will loose market share once the word gets out and will piss off to stupider pastures.

How hard is this? Why isn't such a simple solution even thought of or attempted. It's not rocket science. I often see propaganda from the governement on TV where they go on about "Guvement, Kering Togetha fo a betta Fyootcha". Those ads are useless crap. Use the time to actually spread some info about scams.
 
Gaz{M} said:
I propose this as a solution. Government spends a few million on advertising about these scams. Some TV, some radio and some billboards etc. America calls them Public Service Announcements. In these ads, explain the different types of scams, how they work, the types of messages etc. Educate the stupid, greedy people a bit. Soon the Nigerians will loose market share once the word gets out and will piss off to stupider pastures.

How hard is this? Why isn't such a simple solution even thought of or attempted. It's not rocket science. I often see propaganda from the governement on TV where they go on about "Guvement, Kering Togetha fo a betta Fyootcha". Those ads are useless crap. Use the time to actually spread some info about scams.
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The Nigerians would probably bring out an advertisement first, educating people on how to better make use of the "once in a lifetime opportunity" they will be mailing you.
 
The best I ever got was an email saying " You are going to Die" unless you pay $5K into my account. You would have to be real dum to fall for that one. So I immediate send them a Western Union transfer and am glad to be alive. Eeish that was close.

$5K to be alive was a good bargain.
 
voipnow said:
The best I ever got was an email saying " You are going to Die" unless you pay $5K into my account. You would have to be real dum to fall for that one. So I immediate send them a Western Union transfer and am glad to be alive. Eeish that was close.

$5K to be alive was a good bargain.
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I wonder what the hit rate is on a scheme like that... Think about it - if you send out a million emails like that, chances are that you may get one or 2 paranoid/superstitious/bottom of the gene pool people out there that might actually pay you the money...
 
sleeper said:
I wonder what the hit rate is on a scheme like that... Think about it - if you send out a million emails like that, chances are that you may get one or 2 paranoid/superstitious/bottom of the gene pool people out there that might actually pay you the money...
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Yes, but think of all the people who die when they don't !
 
sleeper said:
I wonder what the hit rate is on a scheme like that... Think about it - if you send out a million emails like that, chances are that you may get one or 2 paranoid/superstitious/bottom of the gene pool people out there that might actually pay you the money...
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i suppose that's the same reason spam thrives. there's always an idiot out there who will fall for it.
the other day i got a call from a friend who said a relative of theirs got an sms that they'd won a car. and this friend was running around frantically trying to phone the +44 number on the sms to "claim" the prize for their relative. i told them it was a scam finish & klaar - u don't just "win" a car without entering some competition (hell even the real ones are rigged).
 
Slootvreter said:
No I haven't and people that fall for this needs to be punished as well.
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Agreed. I'm always baffled at how the media portrays the 'victims' as innocent businesspeople. They believed that they were aiding the scammers to defraud the Nigerian government of hundreds of millions of dollars, but instead they got fleeced. How are they innocent? :confused:

I'm not saying corrupt governments don't derserve to be stolen from but people need to be consistent.
 
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