Police has recovered R15 million (about US$800 000) and seized a mansion in South Africa from cyber criminals who siphoned millions of United States dollars from bank accounts belonging to National Foods, a local manufacturer and marketer of food products, The Sunday Mail can reveal.
A team of investigators drawn from the National Prosecuting
Authority (NPA) and police’s commercial crime department dispatched to South
Africa to undertake extraterritorial investigations into the case returned last
week after finalising their probe into what could be one of the biggest
cybercrimes ever reported in the country.
Police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi
confirmed that the team returned last Wednesday.
“The team has returned from South Africa, but they are yet
to brief their commanders on their findings,” he said.
“Once that is done, we will be able to give you details on
their findings.”
A source close to the ongoing investigations told The
Sunday Mail that some ofthe money had been traced and recovered.
“The team faced some challenges when it got to South Africa
since the paperwork that allows them to execute their mandate was not processed
on time,” said the source.
“Since they were already on the ground, they had to forgo
undertaking other planned events.
“For example, we understand that they did not manage to
interview the foreigners suspected to be behind the hacking and will only rely
on what the South African authorities have.
“It was a heavy blow for the team as they were keen to
interview them.”
However, the source said, there are plans for investigators
to return to South Africa.
“The fortunate thing is that nearly R15 million is being
sent back home after it was recovered,” added the source.
“Another house, bought using the National Foods money, was
also seized.
“The team also traced some of the money to a bank in
Namibia.
“Another R5 million was found to be in South Africa.”
The source said investigators also learnt of a local
businessman with possible links to the scam, who they are keen to interview.
Natfoods claims it lost US$1,4 million to criminals who
hacked into the company’s computer systems and accessed credentials to transfer
money from its bank accounts.
The suspects, including two foreigners, engineered an
intricate phishing scam that began with the scammers sending an e-mail
purportedly from a South African financial institution to the Natfoods’ finance
manager.
Phishing is the fraudulent practice of sending e-mails
disguised as electronic messages from reputable companies to induce individuals
to reveal personal information, such as passwords.
Upon opening the e-mail, Natfoods’ computer system was
corrupted.
This gave the fraudsters access to the company’s computer
system, including authorisation to process financial transactions.
The scammers then began instructing the firm’s banks to
deposit money into their own bank accounts in South Africa using the finance
administrator’s credentials.
Law-enforcement agents obtained a High Court order in South
Africa to freeze bank accounts holding part of the loot pending investigations.
The Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) of the National Prosecuting
Authority (NPA), with assistance from its counterparts in South Africa, also
obtained a seizure order to freeze properties suspected to have been bought
using proceeds of the crime.
The South African AFU has since seized a fleet of
top-of-the-range vehicles and a plush Johannesburg mansion pending further
investigations.
Police had earlier confirmed recovering US$950 000 from the
criminals, including properties and cash in South Africa.
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