For several years, the SARB has received numerous requests and calls for assistance from people who have fallen victim to criminal elements operating ‘advance fee fraud’ type scams, commonly known as ‘419’ scams.

Advance fee fraud schemes/‘419’ scams

You or your company may have been a victim of a scam or fraud scheme if you have been:

• promised funds by someone you have never heard of;
• advised that you are the beneficiary of a multimillion-dollar/euro/pound inheritance and need to make a payment to claim the benefit;
• advised that you are the winner of a lottery abroad even though you never bought a ticket and need to make a payment to claim the benefit;
• offered a fantastic business opportunity or received a confidential business proposal from an unknown entity/person who you do not do business with, where foreign funds will be invested/donated locally (e.g. for the development/upliftment of local communities);
• a recipient of emails, phone calls, messages or documents purporting to be from the SARB or SARB officials;
• advised that you need to apply for anti-money laundering/terrorist financing and/or drug clearance documents/certificates from the SARB;
• notified that your funds have been transferred to a SARB account and are being withheld at the SARB;
• offered an unsecured cross-border loan; or
• a recipient of a communication from an unknown person who shows a romantic interest and claims to want to start a friendship/relationship and soon requests financial assistance after a short time.

The SARB’s corporate identity has been abused by syndicates using scam letters/communications to deceive people. The SARB has been falsely implicated in such matters. Victims have been lured into transactions where the information provided by scammers display the SARB logo and/or names of SARB employees. This falsified information is intended to lull the recipient into believing that the communication that he/she has received is legitimate.

If you are in any doubt regarding the authenticity of a transaction, please note the following:

• The SARB does not maintain bank accounts on behalf of private individuals or entities.
• The SARB does not receive cross-border transfers of funds owing to members of the public, nor does it ‘hold’ these alleged funds in anticipation of a transaction being finalised.
• The SARB does not offer or operate online banking facilities, nor does it maintain an internet banking facility for the public.
• The SARB does not issue documents relating to anti-money laundering or drug clearance certificates, tax clearances and marginal fluctuations.
• The transfer of funds into South Africa for legitimate investment purposes is facilitated through commercial banks in South Africa.
• The SARB does not charge a fee for signing official documents.
• The term ‘barrister’ is not used in the South African legal profession.
• The SARB does not appoint lawyers or attorneys to act on behalf of private citizens.
• The SARB does not authorise the transfer of lottery payments or hold lottery money on behalf of the public.
• The SARB’s cash centres and subsidiaries are based in South Africa − it does not have any branches or liaison offices offshore, nor do ‘agents’ in overseas countries act on its behalf.

Despite the SARB’s efforts to help the South African Police Service (SAPS) to bring this scourge to an end, many people are still falling victim to these types of scams, usually due to a lack of knowledge.

Should you have been a victim of a cross-border scam where you have paid funds into a local bank account in anticipation of foreign funds that you were promised to receive, kindly report the matter to your local branch of the SAPS. In addition, you may send the details − via email for the attention of the Compliance and Enforcement Division in the Financial Surveillance Department of the SARB (sarbfnsdept@resbank.co.za) − of the domestic payments you have made, including the amounts, local account numbers, names of alleged account holders (perpetrators), method of payment and local commercial bank where the accounts are held. This will enable the SARB to investigate the matter with a view to possibly prevent future victims being scammed by the same perpetrators.

The modus operandi of these scammers is simple and highly effective. This is how a typical scam communication works:

• The perpetrator’s initial approach is normally via a letter, email, mobile phone text message (SMS), WhatsApp message or a social networking site, advising the potential victim that they will receive a large amount of funds, usually in dollars (and usually millions) due to some occurrence, for example, inheritance, over-budgeted contract payment or lottery winnings. The message will stress that confidentiality must always be maintained. If the individual/entity responds to the initial correspondence, the scam begins. The perpetrator will maintain communication and proceed to the next level of the scam.
  
  
• Once the perpetrator receives a positive response to the initial communication, the targeted person may be asked for their banking details, passport and identification number as well as various other personal details. Communication between the victim and perpetrator continues until the final details of how and when the funds will be exchanged are agreed upon. At this stage, the victim may be sent authentic-looking documents, allegedly signed by influential people and bearing the logo of a prominent well-known entity, confirming the large sum of money that is awaiting transfer to a nominated bank account.

• However, prior to the release of the funds, the victim will be required to meet with ‘officials’ involved in the transfer of the funds and/or advance money to obtain the alleged clearance documents (such as drug and anti-money laundering certificates). After the victim pays the required fees, the perpetrators ask for more fees (e.g. a transfer fee, a conversion fee or a tax payment). (The more money paid in respect of ‘fees’, the greater the loss for the victim.)

Payment of any fees is regarded as ‘advance fee fraud’ and should be reported to the South African Police Service as a matter of urgency.

• The victim is now faced with the prospect of either losing the original ‘fees’ paid or paying more ‘fees’ in the hope of a bigger payoff. The payoff, of course, never happens because there never was any possibility of a payoff to begin with.

• On many occasions, the victim is asked to meet with the perpetrators to witness the signing of the final release forms. If the victim cannot attend the signing, the perpetrators will allegedly appoint – at a cost to cover the ‘legal fees’ −  a ‘lawyer’ or ‘barrister’ to act on the victim’s behalf. Once the perpetrators have achieved their objective (to scam the victim of as much money as possible) communication lines are abandoned and the victim has no way of recovering the lost funds.

More information on various types of scams/schemes can be obtained on the internet at the following addresses:

https://www.sabric.co.za

http://www.saps.gov.za

http://www.scamwarners.com

http://www.419scam.org

http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com

http://www.fbi.gov/scams-and-safety/common-fraud-schemes