The South African Fraud Prevention Service (SAFPS) has warned that criminal syndicates are drugging victims with hallucinogens as part of an intricate and elaborate ‘sangoma’ scam that targets followers of traditional African belief systems.

This is one of two new wildly intricate scams that have emerged in the country, where syndicates are going the extra mile steal millions of rands from unsuspecting residents.

“South Africans are deeply connected to their culture and cultural beliefs. Followers of the fundamental traditional African belief system believe they are watched over by their ancestors, who guide them in times of crisis or when facing an important decision in their lives,” the SAFPS said.

As many South Africans currently face harsh economic conditions, individuals are seeking guidance on how to see them through the challenging times – and scam artists are abusing these belief systems and desperation.

Nazia Karrim, Head of Product Development at the SAFPS noted that the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation has recorded a spike in what it calls “ancestry scams”, and approached SAFPS to help inform the public about the threat.

Sangoma scam

Karrim said the modus operandi for the scam is intricate, and involves the criminal syndicates profiling their victims before approaching them.

When the opportunity arises, a member of the syndicate, the communicator, makes contact with the potential victim, who is subsequently informed that they have been sent on behalf of a Sangoma who claims to have been contacted by the victims ancestors, and that the said ancestors need to urgently contact the potential victim to address their plight.

A second member of the syndicate poses as the Sangoma who is receiving the messages from the potential victims’ ancestors, informing the potential victim that they need to be cleansed to help improve their financial circumstances and life in general.

The victim is told to bring a set amount of cash in a bag when visiting the Sangoma, which will be cleansed and blessed by the ancestors.

On arrival, the Sangoma requests the victim, as part of the ritual to drink a cleansing herbal remedy, containing hallucinogens where they reportedly hear the voices of their ancestors, prompting them to hand over the bag full of cash to the Sangoma.

The Sangoma blesses the money, which miraculously doubles in value. The scammers, unbeknown to the intoxicated victim, add the additional cash into the bag during the ritual, leading the victim to believe the ruse, said Karrim.

The victim is told to return to the Sangoma after they have withdrawn a significant sum of money – either after liquidating their pension fund or withdrawing their life savings.

“The communicator within the syndicate promises the victim, that the Sangoma will cleanse and bless the money, which may double or triple this amount upon their next visit,” Karrim said.

However, at the next meeting with the Sangoma, the victim is drugged again, handing over their life savings, and in return, the victim is handed a bag filled with counterfeit money or paper.

The Sangoma impresses upon the victim that they are only allowed to open the bag a day or two later for the blessing to be successful and promises the victim that when they do, the money would be twice or three times the value.

“The effects of the drugs take a few days to wear off, and that’s when the victim realises that they have been scammed, but the syndicate has disappeared by then. The incident volumes are alarming. The DPCI 419-Scams Task Team has informed the SAFPS that this scam has already impacted numerous victims who hand over hundreds of thousands of rands in each case.

“The loss value of this scam could range in millions of rands,” warns Karrim.

Coltan scam

Criminal syndicates are not only ramping up their scams to those who follow African traditions, Karrim said.

Another emerging scam highlighted by the DPCI involves commodity trading and targets anyone looking to make money through seemingly sound investments.

“This scam is being run by foreign nationals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) who are visiting South Africa posing as mining executives from that country,” Karrim said.

“After a ‘chance’ meeting with the potential victim, who they befriend, the phoney mining executives set up business meetings to present the potential victim with a bogus business proposition which involves the trading of coltan stones.”

The phoney mining executives advise the potential victim that the current market selling price of these stones is currently very high, and that the victim is welcome to take a sample of the rock and conduct their own research.

The victim is then contacted by another member of the syndicate pretending to be the buyer who is interested in making a purchase.

The phoney mining executives and buyer meet with the victim to discuss the potentially lucrative transaction with the victim.

In keeping with the ruse, the phoney mining executives assure the victim and the phoney buyer that the stones are legitimate but that they should have the stones tested at their expense. The phoney mining executives arrange a tester who provides a false certification that the sample is genuine.

To facilitate a large-scale transaction, the victim is informed that they require the acquisition of numerous other certifications, licenses and tax documents from the DRC, which the phoney mining executives claim they will facilitate the arrangement of, but the victim will be required to bankroll all the costs.

After numerous costly and fruitless engagements, the victim realises that the transaction was a scam, and by then, they have lost a significant amount of money.

Karrim added that it is estimated that millions of rands have already been lost to this scam.

The SAFPS said that to combat the growing incidents of criminal scams, it has launched a fraud prevention platform called Yima where South Africans can report scams, secure their identity and scan any website for vulnerabilities related to scams.

A scams hotline is also available to report a fraud incident directly to participating banks, retailers, or telecoms companies via a single number 083 123 SCAM (7226).

Users will only need to remember one number rather than search for each institution’s fraud contact centres numbers one at a time, especially when they are dealing with the trauma of falling victim to a scam.

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