419ers get smarter....

[hallucienate]

Right, now everyone has heard Methy whinge about 419 scam spam. This is the next generation:http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id ... 3&set_id=1

Cape Town postal investigators are on the alert after uncovering a scam which includes using the mail system to get the signatures of wealthy residents, enabling conmen to get at their money in European bank accounts.

It is known that at least one person has been fleeced of thousands of rands.

Post office investigators said they believed a syndicate was targeting people living in wealthy areas in Cape Town who had foreign bank accounts.

The fraudsters were known to operate in Vredehoek, Fish Hoek, Llandudno, Constantia and Hout Bay.

Postal authorities had received correspondence from clients which included letters bearing their forged signatures, sent by scamsters to the customers' overseas banks in an attempt to rip them off.

The amounts requested ranged between €50 000 (about R500 000) and €250 000 (about R2-million).

The modus operandi included roaming the streets of the suburbs, where the fraudsters would take letters from mail boxes which had details of the resident's foreign bank account.

They have also allegedly tried to bribe post carriers to give them overseas mail.

Investigators said post carriers had seen men - described as well-dressed "West Africans" - looking through mailboxes.

They would then send the resident a registered envelope, usually A4 size, which had to be fetched from the post office.

It would contain a leaflet advertising cellphones and a separate letter offering cellphone deals.

At the post office the resident is required to sign for the package as well as sign an advice of delivery slip, which is returned to the sender as a confirmation the package had been fetched.

Most of these slips confiscated by the post office bear the name and address Adam Trading, PO Box 445, Goodwood 7460.

Investigators believe once the fraudsters get the advice slip back, they duplicate the signature on a letter using a computer scanner.

The letter is then sent to Sunnyside in Pretoria and from there to the resident's overseas bank, requesting that money be deposited into another account.

Some of the letters received from clients showed the recipients requesting that money be deposited into bank accounts in South Korea, the Netherlands and Indonesia.

A Vredehoek resident told the post office he had noticed that an airmail letter from his bank in Germany had been opened.

Shortly after this, he was notified that he had to fetch registered mail.

His wife went to the post office and signed for it.

Not long after this, his bank in Germany received a request, by mail, for the transfer of funds from his account to one in Indonesia.

Another person was sent a fax by his bank in the Netherlands stating it had received a fraudulent letter asking to withdraw €250 000 from his account.

The man laid a charge at the police station and then informed the post office.

Chief PO investigator Jacques Marais said the letters were not professional in style.

"A client of ours who speaks German had a look at some of the letters and said the scamsters did not know what they were doing, as the letters were poorly written.

"Also, banks abroad seem pretty clued up about this kind of thing," Marais said.

Another telltale was that Goodwood on the advice slip for Adam Trading was spelt as Good Wood and Hout Bay was spelt as Hoak Bay on the letters addressed to residents targeted there.

Marais said delivery people had been complaining to their superiors that they had, in the past few months been harassed by "West Africans" who had offered them money for mail from abroad.

He said they had found no evidence to suggest any staff member was in cahoots with the syndicate.

Marais said investigators had, in recent weeks, focused on intercepting registered mail sent by fraudsters at the Capemail depot in Epping.

"Last week, we intercepted at least 50. It costs R18 to send registered mail like they do, but I suppose they figure if they score once, it will make up for all the letters sent.

"We have informed our depots about what is happening here in Epping, where we have a 24-hour operation. We have been on high alert for these letters."

Marais said this was the first time investigators had come across this scam.

"This is an ingenious way to get someone's signature. When people fetch their registered mail, I recommend that they not sign the advice slip before asking the clerk to open the package."

Marais said they were working with the police commercial unit on the case.