A slick scam that fleeced tourists from Australia to Japan out of hundreds of thousands of rand in just 18 days came crashing down after a high-speed chase ended in the arrest of four alleged syndicate members.
The suspects appeared in the Gqeberha magistrate’s court on Wednesday in connection with charges including fraud, theft and money laundering. They were arrested on October 19.
According to the charge sheet, Mziyanda Magopeni, Linda Aba, Masixole Notile and Mthunzi Sidyiyo illegally used three point-of-sale devices (mobile card payment machines) to collect “parking” fees from tourists.
Most of the alleged offences occurred in tourist hotspots in Gqeberha, including Summerstrand and at The Donkin Reserve, between October 1 and 18.
It was later found that the point-of-sale devices were all linked to FNB. Investigators have yet to determine whether they were stolen from businesses.
The suspects, some wearing caps and lanyards (cords usually worn around the neck for identification purposes) indicating that they worked as security guards, would then allegedly approach tourists and explain that they needed to pay for their parking or other services.
The unsuspecting victims would then be led to a “pay point” where they were assisted to tap their cards and enter their pin numbers.
Unbeknown to them, their cards were allegedly tapped multiple times for payments of tens of thousands of rand, until the payments would eventually bounce.
The pin numbers were also entered into a calculator disguised as a mobile pay point so that the accused could save them for possible future use.
The complainants only became aware that they had been duped later on.
The suspects are accused of trying to defraud the tourists and FNB out of more than R850,000.
According to the charge sheet, they were unable to benefit from the full amount due to the bank declining some transactions. However, they allegedly managed to steal about R322,000.
It is the state’s case that the four men had worked as a syndicate, possibly with other unknown suspects.
Additional charges against them include cyber fraud, cyber extortion, and the unlawful acquisition and possession of the payment devices.
Payments were made from bank accounts located in countries such as the US, Germany, Korea, India, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Japan and SA.
The money laundering charges, which carry a maximum prescribed sentence of a fine of R100m or up to 30 years’ imprisonment, relate to how the payments from the point-of-sale devices were then redirected to other accounts in a suspected bid to conceal the thefts.
According to the charge sheet, on October 4, a US Mastercard was swiped for two separate amounts of more than R29,000 each.
Both transactions were approved.
The next day, a German national was allegedly duped out of a total R71,000.
Payments in the amounts of R44,700 and R29,000 from a Japanese tourist’s card were declined twice.
There were a total 33 such transactions, including the ones that were declined.
The accused, all unemployed, live in Gqeberha.
Police had followed up on information and the suspects were ultimately arrested at the Humerail section of the harbour after a police chase.
Their VW Polo was eventually stopped after the occupants ignored the sirens from the marked police vehicles for them to pull over.
The car, according to the state, was allegedly fitted with a cloned registration plate actually registered to a VW factory employee — and unbeknown to him.
It was stuck onto the vehicle with double-sided tape.
During the arrest, the driver — Aba — reportedly gave permission to the arresting officers to search the vehicle.
In the vehicle, police allegedly found three speed point devices, two hand-held radios, and two calculators with stickers on them which read “Visa Master Card” and “We accept card payments here”.
In addition, a cash receipt book, a role of clear double-sided tape, two Okapi knives, a black cap with “Security” written on the front and a lanyard holding a card that stated “All visitors must report to security office”, were recovered.
In court on Wednesday, the accused opted to change their legal representatives.
Defence attorney Ntsikelelo Kalipa will now represent Sidyiyo, while lawyer Zolile Ngqeza is appearing for all the others.
The case was postponed to Thursday for the police to verify whether any of the accused have previous convictions, pending cases, or warrants out for their arrest.
While the state first indicated that there were pending matters against the accused, Ngqeza argued that the matter had since been withdrawn.
The matter was set down provisionally for a formal bail application on Thursday.
The Herald
