Macabre kidnap scam
F JACK Oosthuizen refused to pay the ransom, his grandson’s head would arrive in his post box.
The ransom was for just R5 000, but for that, according to a Facebook message, the would-be kidnapper was willing to kill and dismember the young man.
The problem was, Janco, Oosthuizen’s grandson, had been found.
This time Oosthuizen realised it was a con, but an earlier message had the grandfather in a race to save his grandson’s life.
The anonymous caller had sounded so legit, that Oosthuizen had climbed into his car and sped to Margate on the KZN’S South Coast, where he was told his grandson was being held. The caller also said he would from then on only communicate via Whatsapp.
While waiting in Margate, the Whatsapp messages began to come. “He was caught by two Nigerian men and his (sic) next door to me in the house,” the first one read.
“They have him tied and his (sic) assaulted badly.
“They planning to use his body parts, etc”
The demand was for R4 000 in exchange for an address where the teenager was being held.
Janco had been reported missing just hours earlier. “I put it on Facebook that he was missing and 45 minutes later this guy calls,” Oosthuizen said.
While in Margate, Oosthuizen contacted the police. When police officers saw the number and the messages they knew who the caller was.
“They said that it was that old Indian scammer. He is always trying to get people to pay up.”
The scammer didn’t contact him again. These kinds of cons are becoming increasingly common, according
Ito one private investigator who specialises in finding missing persons.
They prey on the vulnerability of family members who happen to leave their contact details on flyers or internet posters pleading for information about their missing loved ones.
“It started about a year ago, but now it has become really bad. Every time, you put out a flyer they automatically start phoning the number at the bottom,” says private investigator Wendy Pascoe.
Many of these con artists do their homework before calling. They will glean as much information about the missing individual from social media to sound more convincing.
“They will usually ask for between R2 000 and R3 000, as it drags on they will ask for more. They want money transfers through e-wallets, which makes it harder to trace,” explained Pascoe.
One of the scammers is well known to the law and those who search for the missing. This individual was believed to operate from Stanger, in Kwazulu-natal. Police and private investigators want to nab him, but finding his exact location has been difficult.
Unlike real kidnappers there was no money drop where police can set up a sting.
Oosthuizen believed that the scammer who threatened to cut his grandson’s head off and stuff it in his post box was the conman from Stanger.
However, the Facebook profile the conman was using had the location registered as Phoenix, KZN.
This conman, the second to approach Oosthuizen, claimed he had his grandson.
Oosthuizen told him it was impossible, as his son had been found.
Then he received several Facebook messages. “R5 000 en Janco word vrygelaat, (R5 000 and Janco is released),” read the first demand.
Jyp tyd tot 10hoo (sic) fnb ewallet of hy vrek,” (you have until 10am FNB e-wallet or he dies,” it continued. One of the difficulties, said Pascoe, with catching these criminals was that often victims don’t come forward or they don’t open police cases.
But last year one of the alleged scammers was arrested in Phoenix.
On October 23, security members belonging to Reaction Unit South Africa tracked down and arrested a 50-year-old man who was wanted on 22 criminal cases in KZN. He allegedly conned women out of money.
It is believed that he also would demand money from families who had posted missing person’s flyers.
Pascoe advised families of missing persons not to leave family contact details on flyers, but rather get the police and PIS to handle tip-offs.
For Janco, there was a happy ending. It was discovered he had taken a bus to Secunda to visit his mother. He was able to phone his granddad and tell him that he was okay.