Vodacom fraud case postponed
2009-10-20 13:24
Johannesburg - The case of two men allegedly involved in a banking fraud case involving almost R10m was postponed in the Johannesburg Commercial Crime Court on Tuesday.
Mbusi Bhengu and Mbokodana Khoza will appear on November 26 in Court B.
The State alleges the two men formed part of a syndicate that stole million of rands from clients of all four major banks - First National, Standard, Absa and Nedbank, as well as Capitec.
Most of the clients were defrauded after their banking details were allegedly stolen through a method known as phishing - acquiring information such as passwords by masquerading as a legitimate business.
Bhengu, 28, is accused of committing banking fraud of around R8m, while Khoza is accused of using his position as a Vodacom engineer to defraud R1.8m from customers.
Khoza would allegedly intercept Vodacom clients' text messages to obtain banking details like pin numbers and passwords. To do this, he allegedly created a temporary SIM card which was a copy of the banking customer's.
The syndicate would then have money transferred from the victim's bank account to their own and withdraw the money.
Through all this, a client would not receive any correspondence regarding transactions from their accounts, as all text messages in this regard would go to the fraudulent SIM card in possession of the alleged fraudsters.
Bhengu, at an earlier appearance, denied involvement in the fraud and collusion with Khoza.
The court however heard that Bhengu allegedly sent several bank cards to Durban using the SA Airways courier service.
Khoza was out on bail while Bhengu remained in custody until their next appearance.
The postponement was to allow for further investigation.
- SAPA