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The Southern African Fraud Prevention Service (SAFPS) has warned that scammers are increasingly using traditional African belief systems to defraud South African cultural and ancestral believers in the guise of helping them get through economically trying times.
According to the fraud prevention service, fraudsters target South Africans struggling to make ends meet and would typically seek guidance from traditional African healers to see them through these challenging times.
Head of product development at SAFPS Nazia Karrim says:
Karrim adds that the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) specialised scams task team has also seen a surge in these types of ancestry scams and has approached SAFPS to help inform the public about the threat.
Modus operandi is malicious
Karrim explains that the modus operandi of the culprits' intricate and malicious scam is run by an advanced syndicate that profiles their potential victims before approaching them. When the opportunity arises, a member of the syndicate, the communicator, establishes contact with the potential victim, who is subsequently informed that they have been sent on behalf of a sangoma who claims to have been contacted by the victim's ancestors to be the mediator in addressing the victim's plight.
Another syndicate then poses as the sangoma, who is receiving messages from the potential victim's ancestors, informing the potential victim that they need to be cleansed to help improve their financial circumstances and life in general.
"The victim is told to bring a set amount of cash in a bag when visiting the sangoma, which will be cleansed and blessed by the ancestors. On arrival, the sangoma requests the victim, as part of the ritual, to drink a cleansing herbal remedy, containing hallucinogens where they reportedly hear the voices of their ancestors, prompting them to hand over the bag full of cash to the sangoma. The sangoma then blesses the money, which miraculously doubles in value. The scammers, unbeknown to the intoxicated victim, add the additional cash into the bag during the ritual, leading the victim to believe the ruse,” says Karrim.
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After the supposed ritual, the victim is told to return to the sangoma after they have withdrawn a significant sum of money (either after liquidating their pension fund or withdrawing their life savings). The syndicate communicator keeps in touch with the victim and promises that the sangoma will cleanse and bless the money, which may double and triple upon the next visit.
"However, at the next meeting with the sangoma, the victim is drugged, and again hands over their life savings, and in return, the victim is handed a bag filled with counterfeit money or paper. The sangoma impresses upon the victim that they are only allowed to open the bag a day or two later for the blessing to be successful and promises the victim that when they do, the money would be twice or three times the value," warns SAFPS in a statement.
"The incident volumes are alarming. The DPCI 419-Scams Task Team has informed the SAFPS that this scam has already impacted numerous victims who have handed over hundreds of thousands of rands in each case. The loss value of this scam could range in millions of rands," says Karrim.
Rocketing commodity trade scams
Apart from the ancestry scam, Karrim points out that there is another investment scam that the DPCI 419-Scams Task Team is investigating, which involves a commodity trading syndicate.
Karrim concedes that this scam is being run by foreign nationals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) who are visiting South Africa, posing as mining executives from that country.
"After a ‘chance’ meeting with the potential victim, who they befriend, the phoney mining executives set up business meetings to present the potential victim with a bogus business proposition, which involves the trading of coltan stones. The phoney mining executives advise the potential victim that the current market selling price of these stones is currently very high and that the victim is welcome to take a sample of the rock and conduct their own research. The victim is then contacted by another member of the syndicate pretending to be the buyer who is interested in making a purchase," says Karrim.
The fake mining executives and buyer meet the victim to discuss the possible transaction with the victim. They also assure the victim that the stones are legitimate and that the victim can opt to test the stones at their own expense.
Thereafter, the phoney mining executives arrange a tester who provides a false certification that the sample is genuine.
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"To facilitate a large-scale transaction, the victim is informed that they require the acquisition of numerous other certifications, licences and tax documents from the DRC, which the phoney mining executives claim they will facilitate the arrangement of, but the victim will be required to bankroll all the costs. After numerous costly and fruitless engagements, the victim realises that the transaction was a scam and by then, they have lost a significant amount of money," states Karrim.
DPCI notes that the people impacted by this scam, as well as those who are prone to be scammed, lose millions of rands.
A platform to address the scourge of scams
In response to the growing need for a proactive approach to fraud prevention, the SAFPS launched Yima. Yima is a one-stop-shop website for South Africans to report scams, secure their identity, and scan any website for vulnerabilities related to scams.
"A key element of the website is the ability to report a scam incident or any suspicious activity to the SAFPS. These reports are analysed to assist in syndicate identification and shared with law enforcement for investigation by specialised task teams. A scams hotline is also available to report a fraud incident directly to participating banks, retailers or telecoms companies via a single number 083 123 SCAM (7226)," said SAFS in a statement.
Karrim also mentions that the SAFPS has added a special scam-type category for ancestry and commodity investment scams on Yima to help educate the public about the scams. The website can also assist people to refine their decision-making process.
"One of the features on Yima’s website is a decision tree that walks consumers through a decision-making process to help them discover if they are potentially being targeted in a scam. Potential victims can also use the verification tool, Verify, on the Yima website, which will help them identify if a fellow citizen is, in fact, a South African citizen and verify them against the department of home affairs using facial biometrics. If they do get scammed by that individual, they will have a profile confirmation to help identify the scammer."
Karrim add:
