Cape Town - The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) has revealed that over the past six weeks, members of the public have been targeted and defrauded by an unidentified criminal syndicate claiming to be associated with at least three financial services providers.
The FSCA raised the red flag on the syndicate and what it termed “a fraudulent and malicious entity or individuals” who have been targeting the public through WhatsApp and, in one case, Instagram.
The FSCA urged “anyone transferring money to bank accounts to be extremely cautious and to always obtain proof that the bank account they are dealing with is registered in the name of the entity which it claims to belong to”.
The warning came after the three separate companies – Anchor Capital, Aluma Capital, and Emperor Asset Management – separately lodged complaints with the police, and reported the issue to the FSCA after being contacted by members of the public who had been duped.
Anchor Capital is an independently owned, boutique wealth and asset management and asset consulting service that has R110 billion in assets under management and advice, and has offices in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Stellenbosch, Umhlanga, Mauritius and London.
Anchor Capital Co-Chief Investment Officer Peter Armitage said on Friday, they were alerted to the scam by a phone call to their offices by an irate member of the public asking for his money back.
“We didn’t know anything about it, but when we looked into it we found the person had been approached via Instagram, where these criminals had copied our logo.
“The criminals were impersonating our company employees to get money from potential investors by offering fraudulent investment opportunities.”
Armitage said the operation was very amateurish, but had still lured people into parting with their money, and there was no telling how many people had been scammed.
“We reported it to the police and to the FSCA as standard operating procedure, but so far no arrests have been made.”
Aluma Capital and Emperor Asset Management were victims of fraudulent WhatsApp groups impersonating them to solicit investments from the public, and promising grossly inflated returns across various investment plans.
Emperor urged members of the public to be vigilant and report any suspicious communication purporting to come from Emperor.
On its website, the company makes a point of assuring potential clients: “We won’t hassle you with unsolicited calls or emails pressuring you to invest.”
It also provides advice on verification: “Any requests to deposit funds into other accounts should raise a red flag.”
Aluma, one of the few companies in South Africa that provides full automated investing through its automated advice portal, told the FSCA that the registration number, cellphone numbers, and banking details used by the impersonators were not theirs.
They were targeted by a group that had styled itself “Aluma Private Equity Fund 2”, which used its logo to solicit investments from the members of the public.