This week, our story is about a 67-year-old pensioner who was scammed by fraudsters who paid themselves R960 960.16 in 23 different transactions on the same day, into bank accounts held at the third respondent, the Red Bank, and the White Bank. They managed to do this after gaining control over her bank account.
Let’s start from the beginning. In 2023 she (let’s call her Gogo) received her inheritance from the proceeds of a farmland, which she invested through the White Bank in a six-month fixed account. On the 2nd of February, Gogo receives a text message: “Payment notification: Transaction debited R11 700 on Takealot Ref-T[…]. Not you or report call on 0[…].”
Gogo is alarmed by the text because she never ordered anything from Takealot. Gogo goes ahead and calls the number on the text, and it is answered by a “Tessa Smit” but the accent is Indian. Tessa claims she is from the White Bank’s Fraud Department and advises Gogo that her account has been hacked, and they suspect it was an inside job.
Tessa instructs Gogo to go to a Capitec branch so she can arrange a transfer of funds from her fixed account to her savings account. Gogo is convinced by the fraudster that she is being helped to secure her funds from people who were trying to misappropriate her investment. Tessa assures Gogo that moving the funds between accounts would be reimbursed by the White Bank. Tessa then tells Gogo that once she has moved her funds, she should inform her via WhatsApp so that Tessa can begin reversing the fraudulent transactions on her account.
Gogo goes to the Centurion White Bank branch and transfers an amount of R1 026 590.23 into her savings account. What does Gogo do? She calls Tessa to inform her that the funds have been moved. Eish, Gogo…Tessa then advises Gogo on the process of “rectifying and reversing the fraud” by downloading an app called “AnyDesk“, which Gogo installs. Yoh… now the fraud really starts. After installing the app, Gogo is unable to perform any functions on her phone as they had gained full control of her device. As all of this is happening… BOOM! R3 500 is deposited into a bank account at the Red Bank, in the name of Tarryn Hill. Aowa hle! Can you imagine how Gogo is feeling as this is unfolding? Gogo asks Tessa, “Who is that person?” Tessa tells Gogo that it is the account the hacker had supposedly paid money into. She leads Gogo to believe she is in the process of reversing the transaction so it can be returned to Gogo.
But listen, more transactions were paid to this Tarryn Hill, as his name kept appearing in the notifications while Gogo couldn’t use her device. As this continues, Tessa tells Gogo that she is “busy with the Nigerian Fraud Department” to help reverse the transactions. This call lasts a few hours. Once it ends, guess what? Gogo receives a notification that she only has R35.00 left in her account, R35.00. Yoh! That’s when Gogo realises she has been scammed. She rushes to the White Bank branch to get assistance, and her savings account is immediately frozen. Thereafter, the matter is reported to the Bank’s Forensic Investigations Department.
The White Bank’s Forensic Investigations Department found the following 23 transactions that Tarryn made in the following order:
1) R44 000.00
2) R26 500.00
3) R41 000.00
4) R43 500.00
5) R26 500.00
6) R44 600.00
7) R44 700.00
8) R44 800.00
9) R44 900.00
10) R32 700.00
11) R44 992.00
12) R44 987.00
13) R40 501.00
14) R44 717.00
15) R44 919.00
16) R44 999.00
17) R44 888.00
18) R44 777.00
19) R44 666.00
20) R44 555.00
21) R44 925.00
22) R43 989.00
23) R18 000.00
The White Bank informed the Red Bank that proceeds of fraudulent crime was transferred into accounts of a client banking with them. Every single withdrawal the fraudster “Tarryn Hill” made was transferred into his bank account with the White Bank then into his Red Bank account. During investigations they found that Tarryn’s bank account had only R3000 opening balance on that day and then all the 23 transactions started pouring in. Now let’s find out what Tarryn does with Gogo’s money. He then transfers all the 23 transactions from his White Bank account to his Red Bank account with the reference “Rowan Absa.”
Investigations reveal that Tarryn is a cryptocurrency trader and he states that Gogo purchased cryptocurrency from him hence the multiple transactions. “Tarryn contends that Gogo has willingly (and blindly so) allowed and facilitated vast sums of money to be paid from her bank account to third parties and communicated with scamsters to release the funds. He contends that she should have known that she was being scammed, as she admitted in retrospect.” Tarryn contends that all the requirements in terms of FICA were complied with by the very nature of registering and doing business on Binance. He states: “It is one of the reasons that I trade with Binance as it assures that all the FICA requirements are met as all users of Binance identities are verified and copies of their IDs taken.” It would make sense but…
The evidence shows that the Tarryn put the Gogo through all the steps required to register her identity on Binance without her knowing that she was doing so when they told her to download the App. This included a photograph taken with movement of the head. The fact that he conducted multiple transactions under the limit of R50 000.00 was in itself a red flag which obligated Tarryn’s account to be reported to FICA as being suspicious. His failure to verify the identity of his true client in respect of the trades is the reason why these transactions proceeded at all. Tarryn is outwardly washed his hands of his obligations in terms of FICA and, in fact, blames Gogo for being scammed. Tarryn had duties to the public in terms of FICA to prevent money laundering if he was really a genuine cryptocurrency trader.
On the 5th of March 2024 Gogo was contacted by a Manager at the White Bank Forensic Investigation Department. They informed Gogo that they were able to trace and retrieve a certain amount of the transactions debited on her savings account by Tessa and Tarryn. Gogo recovered R467 125.70 which was deposited into her savings account on 28 and 29 February 2024. She was further advised that Tarryn has a White Bank savings account that still had an amount of R102 879.11. Unfortunately, Gogo did not retrieve her entire inheritance back.
DISCLAIMER! This content is for educational and informational purposes based on publicly available information.
Source: SAFLII