Scammed for $30,000 plus

Local couple robbed in well-orchestrated international scam - Part 1 in a series looking at how the scam works and how elaborate the operation is.

What started out as a cry for help ended up in an international incident with car ramming, guns and corruption for a Kununurra couple.

In the end it cost them more than $30,000 and a loss of faith in human nature.

They don't wish to be named and believe other Kununurra residents have been trapped in similar circumstances.

They do want other people to be aware and for this reason have told the Kimberley Echo the chilling story of how two intelligent business people managed to get sucked into a plot that could well have cost the husband, not just substantially more money, but his life as well.

It all started with a letter from South Africa, complete with the appropriate stamps and franked envelope.

Inside was a letter, typed in capitals and signed by 'a private assistant' Lima Da Silva and a woman Mrs Zubair Sankarah.

The letter, purported to be written by Mrs Sankarah, said the couple's reputation of honesty and integrity had been brought to her attention by a mutual friend.

She then went on to say that she and her husband had owned one of the most successful farms in Zimbabwe until they were forced off it by President Mugabe's 'veterans'.

She claimed her husband had been murdered and she and her son had fled to South Africa.

However, before her husband's murder, he had deposited $US 9.5 million in a safety deposit box in South Africa.

Because she was a refugee she could do nothing with the money and needed a foreign businessman to open an account in South Africa so the money could be deposited and then moved out of the country.

For this service she was willing to pay 15 per cent.

Next to Da Silva's name at the bottom of the letter was a mobile telephone number.

Normally the couple would have thrown it away and not given it much more thought.

But, a short time previously, they had known a Zimbabwean woman, in Kununurra, who had witnessed the murder of her husband, rape of her children and then their murder.

All, including the woman, had then had their throats slashed.

Miraculously, she had survived and now lives in Australia.

It was enough for the Kununurra couple to think just 'maybe' this could be the odd one out and not a scam, but a genuine call for help - they dialled the number.

There followed a series of phone calls and the couple got to talk to the mother and son as well as the private assistant.

They weren't convinced and asked for documentation.

It was dispatched almost immediately - various faxes, names and companies.

Amongst these was the company supposed to be holding the safety deposit box - King Security.

Everything checked out and King Security even had a page on the Internet.

They even received a five-page 'Depository Agreement' supposedly made when the deceased husband deposited the money with the security company.

Couched in legal terminology, it laid out the conditions and charges for the storage and insurance of the security box and showed that money had been paid up front for its storage.

Then followed more telephone calls from South Africa with the woman and her children crying on the phone, saying how frightened they were and that they just wanted to get out of South Africa.

These calls continued for about six weeks until the couple could stand it no longer and it was decided the husband would fly to South Africa and see the situation first hand.

At this stage, they had not been asked for any money, only that a business account be set up with a bank in South Africa.

Next week we will look at what happened when he reached South Africa and what led to high speed car ramming, guns, false police officers and the discovery of other scam victims.