Cyber syndicate bust

An international cybercrime syndicate operating from South Africa - allegedly behind the theft of millions of dollars - has been smashed, with raids in Pretoria.

The arrests of 11 Nigerian men and a South African woman - who appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court yesterday - were among 20 made in raids across the world on Tuesday.

As police raided flats in Sunnyside, other syndicate members were seized across the US and in Canada.

The two-year investigation began after agents from US Homeland Security Investigations were tipped off by a Mississippi woman about a suspicious parcel she had received from Pretoria.

Hawks spokesman Captain Paul Ramaloko said the suspects had appeared in court for extradition back to the US, where they had conned hundreds of people.

The Mississippi woman who tipped off police had nearly fallen victim to their "Sweetheart" scam.

In February, engineering student Orowo Jesse Omokoh was arrested in Nigeria after he was linked to the alleged scamming and murder of Australian widow Jette Jacobs.

Jacobs, who fell victim to an online romance scam, was found dead in her rented Johannesburg home in March last year. She had been conned out of nearly R900000 by a cybercrime syndicate.

Ramaloko said the Mississippi woman who had tipped off the US authorities had been told to ship the contents of the parcel back to the address in Pretoria.

"The investigation revealed that the merchandise was packaged using stolen personal identity information and fraudulent credit card information from a US citizen," Ramaloko said.

Hundreds of US citizens had fallen victim to the scam, he said.

"The syndicate has operated for years, purchasing shipping labels from the US postal service and courier companies using fraudulent credit card information and stolen identities.

"Once the stolen merchandise reached South Africa, the suspects advertised it for sale on the internet."

He said the arrests on Tuesday followed the earlier arrest of 18 people in the US who were charged with money-laundering, theft of government funds, aggravated identity theft, and wire, bank, access device and mail fraud.

"A US court was granted warrants of arrest for people living in South Africa as well as search warrants for property in Pretoria.

"During Tuesday's arrests police seized computers, cellphones and documents," Ramaloko said.

Cybercrime expert Danny Myburgh said though South Africa was working towards establishing a national cyber-threat strategy, it was not properly protected.

"South Africa loses hundreds of millions of rands every year to cyber criminals who attack corporates and the general population.

"There is a major problem in terms of organisations being able to monitor or detect cybercrimes, with those in the corporate world left out in the cold to fend for themselves.

"The types of attacks that occur in South Africa are mainly for financial gain. What is worrying is these breaches are detected only when cash is removed from a bank account . it makes one wonder how much in terms of espionage is not being detected," Myburgh said.