Supplied
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Pretoria -
An international cyber crime
syndicate was exposed this week, with 12 people arrested on South
African soil, officials said on Wednesday.
Twelve people were arrested in
Pretoria on Tuesday while another 10 were arrested in the United States
and Canada, authorities from the three countries said in a joint
statement.
The arrests came after a joint
operation between the Hawks, Crime Intelligence, SA Tactical Response
Team and department of home affairs and Interpol, the US Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
“The suspects, 11 Nigerians and
one South African woman, are linked to this global scam. The suspects
enriched themselves with illegally obtained funds,” authorities said in a
statement.
During the operation, investigators seized computers, laptops, cellphones, notebooks and documents.
The 12
appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court on Wednesday on charges of
fraud and theft. The matter was postponed to May 28. They would be
extradited to the United States where they were expected to face other
charges.
HSI Pretoria Attaché Abraham Lugo
said the HSI believed that by working with the South African government
to dismantle the transnational mass marketing criminal organisations,
they would bring the perpetrators to justice and recoup the victims'
losses.
“Our collaboration with the South
African Police Service, Interpol and other government agencies, will
also increase public awareness of these crimes and hopefully will
prevent people from falling victim to these schemes in the future,” he
said.
Head of the Hawks, Lt-Gen Anwa
Dramat said the arrests were a ramification of the collaboration between
South African Police Service and US Homeland Security Investigations.
“If criminals are able to interact with their fellows across the borders, we can do it better,” said Dramat.
The arrests were as a result of the HSI special agents following a financial fraud scam to Sunnyside, Pretoria.
The US
federal charges allege that a West African transnational organised crime
enterprise was involved in numerous complex financial fraud schemes
over the internet.
The fraud included romance scams,
reshipping scams, fraudulent check scams, work-at-home scams, along with
bank, financial and credit card account takeovers.
The investigation was initiated by
HSI special agents in October 2011, after US law enforcement was
contacted by a female victim in Mississippi, who was a victim in one of
the scams.
She allegedly received a
suspicious package in the mail requesting her to reship the merchandise
to an address in Pretoria, South Africa.
During investigations, it was
found that the merchandise was purchased using stolen personal identity
information and fraudulent credit card information of persons in the
United States.
The syndicate is said to have
operated for some years purchasing shipping labels from the US Postal
Service (USPS), Federal Express, United Parcel Service and DHL with
fraudulent credit card information or stolen identities.
Once the merchandise reached South Africa, the group advertised it for sale on the internet. - Sapa
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