14 DAY TRIAL // The so-called 419 scams, or Nigerian scams, which start with an email telling the recipient that he could win diamond mines or millions in exchange for their assistance, can sometime turn real ugly and end with the victim being kidnapped. Such is the case of a South Korean man and his daughter who responded to a South African scheme.
According to The Guardian, a 65-year-old South Korean man traveled to South Africa with his daughter, in her 30s, to claim a prize consisting of tens of millions of dollars allegedly won in a lottery.
Upon arriving in the African country, the two, along with the driver that picked them up at the airport, were kidnapped and held hostage by a Nigerian gang for four days until the local authorities raided the house in Meadowlands, Soweto, where they were imprisoned.
“The suspects demanded a $10m (7 million EUR) ransom from the 65-year-old man's wife (who was back in South Korea), to be deposited into an account in Singapore. The amount was eventually negotiated down to $120,000 (84,000 EUR),” revealed Col McIntosh Polela of the South African police service (Saps).
“While the negotiations were ongoing, the wife alerted the South Korean embassy in South Africa.”
Fortunately, the driver managed to escape and alert the police, members of the Saps capturing the suspects before any money was deposited.
During the police raid, five Nigerians and a South African were apprehended, but the Koreans were so traumatized and embarrassed by the whole experience that they returned to their country as soon as they could, without testifying against them.
This comes to prove again that these scams can be highly dangerous and that’s why Internet users who receive emails that promise them fabulous winnings should ignore them completely.
Not long ago we’ve seen how a lawyer from New Zealand fell for a similar trap and ended up being sued for giving the crooks money from a trust he chaired, allegedly needed to wash the prize money.