Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
No luck for con artist demanding R5 000
THE cryptic Facebook message read that if Jack Oosthuizen refused to pay a ransom demand, his grandson’s head would arrive in his post box.
The ransom was for just R5 000, but for that amount, the would-be kidnapper was willing to kill. However, Janco, Oosthuizen’s 18-year-old grandson, had already been found.
And while this time Oosthuizen realised it was a con, an earlier message from a supposedly different person had the grandfather in a race to save his beloved grandson’s life.
In fact, the anonymous caller had sounded so legit that Oosthuizen had climbed into his car and sped to Margate, KwaZulu-Natal, where the man had told him his grandson was being held.
The caller had also told him that he would from then on only communicate via WhatsApp messenger.
While waiting in Margate, the WhatsApp messages began dropping.
“He was caught by two Nigerian men and his (sic) next door to me in the house,” the first text read.
“They have him tied and his (sic) assaulted badly.”
“They planning to use his body parts etc.”
That demand was for R4000, for information of an address; just hours after Janco had been reported missing.
“I put it on Facebook that he was missing, and 45 minutes later this guy calls,” Oosthuizen said.
While in Margate, he contacted the police and reported what had happened. When police officers saw the number and the messages they knew who the caller was.
“They said to me, ‘it is that old Indian scammer. He is always trying to get people to pay up’.”
The con artist didn’t contact him again.
These kinds of cons are becoming increasing common, according to one private investigator who specialises in finding missing persons.
Con artists prey on the vulnerability of family members who happen to leave their contact details on fliers 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 flier they automatically start phoning the number at the bottom,” says private investigator Wendy Pascoe.
Many of these con artists will do their homework before making the call. They will glean as much infor- mation about the missing individual from social media sites, so as 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,” explains Pascoe.
One of these con artists is well known to law enforcement and those who search for the missing. This individual is believed to operate from KwaDukuza in KwaZulu-Natal. Police and PIs want to catch him, but finding an exact location for him has been difficult.
Unlike real kidnappers, there is no money drop where police can set up a sting operation.
Oosthuizen believes that the man who threatened to cut off his grandson’s head is the conman from KwaDukuza.
However, the Facebook profile the conman was using had the location registered as Phoenix in 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.
One of the difficulties in catching these criminals, said Pascoe, is that often victims don’t come forward or don’t open cases at police stations.
But late last year one of the alleged scammers was arrested in Phoenix.