CAPE TOWN – The Hawks Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team continues to make inroads in dealing with sophisticated card-cloning fraudsters in Cape Town.
This follows the re-arrest of three suspects aged between 51 and 40 who were served with court summons on Thursday and are set to appear at the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on 07 October 2020.
The trio was initially arrested on 21 August 2013 after the Hawks investigation team seized numerous card cloning devices and counterfeit cards at various premises linked to the suspects. The case was later provisionally withdrawn against the suspects pending the ongoing investigation.
A further investigation has allegedly linked the suspects to two hundred and thirty three (233) charges of fraud and about three hundred and thirty four (334) contraventions of the Electronic Communication Transaction (ETC) Act as well as contravention with the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (POCA).
Two of these alleged fraudulent transaction were traced at two separate petrol stations in Botswana whilst the rest of these were allegedly carried out at various ATMs in Cape Town, making a total cash withdrawals of R230 000.
