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You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.<\/p>\n
JIMMY MOYAHA: We usually have what we call \u2018Warning Wednesdays\u2019 on the show, when we look at some important things that you need to be aware of \u2013 as they relate to financial services, businesses and protecting yourselves as consumers.<\/p>\n
Now yes, today certainly is not Wednesday. I\u2019m not ahead of myself in the calendar but I thought, given that it is 2026, and that we are living in a world of uncertainty, why not change things up a bit and do it on a Tuesday? So we\u2019re going to do Warning Wednesdays on a Tuesday just because we can.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m joined on the line by the divisional executive for enforcement at the Financial Sector Conduct Authority, the FSCA, Gerhard van Deventer, to take a look at some of the warnings the FSCA has been putting out and how South Africans can keep themselves safe.<\/p>\n
Gerhard, lovely having you on the show as always. Thanks so much for taking the time. Now the warning space and what\u2019s been happening in the financial services space \u2013 you and I cover this as often as we can and try to keep consumers as safe as we can, but it seems as though the schemes just keep coming up.<\/p>\n
GERHARD VAN DEVENTER: Absolutely true, Jimmy. It\u2019s like you are climbing uphill and sometimes you feel a little bit despondent, but I don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to go there.<\/p>\n
Before I answer your questions, I am so relieved because, since you asked to speak to me today, I was under the impression it is Wednesday. I\u2019m so happy there\u2019s another day left before the weekend.<\/p>\n
Let me start and pick up on your question.<\/p>\n
Yes, it seems like we see an influx of these scams all the time, and they\u2019re getting more sophisticated.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re well timed. They\u2019re well linked to things that are actually current in the news and so forth. And it\u2019s the same story. It\u2019s the unrealistic returns we need to look out for.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m hoping the fact that we\u2019ve now taken Banxso\u2019s licence, we\u2019ve taken AfriMarkets\u2019s licence, and we\u2019ve done things like that which will send a message out there.<\/p>\n
There is something else I also want to mention, Jimmy, and that is that we are in the final stages of joining an international platform where warnings are easily accessible to everybody. It\u2019s called I-Scan or iScanner, and it is an initiative of Iosco, the International Organisation of Securities Commissions, and we\u2019ve been invited to join.<\/p>\n
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It will mean that all our warnings can go on there, and people like yourself and the public and financial advisors, et cetera, can access it and see the warnings from everybody across the world. Maybe that\u2019ll help a little.<\/p>\n
I still don\u2019t know how we get through to our poor citizens who are being defrauded on a daily basis.<\/p>\n
JIMMY MOYAHA: Well, let\u2019s take a look at some of the particular warnings that came up now. You touched on the fact that they are becoming more sophisticated and more timely, and I noted that one of the warnings that went out was around Gold Earnings Hub and Africa Gold Capital, two businesses that purport to provide returns in the gold space.<\/p>\n
Now we know the gold price has been moving quite a bit, to your point around the fact that the scams themselves are now being lined up with what\u2019s happening in real market events.<\/p>\n
GERHARD VAN DEVENTER: That is absolutely so. That\u2019s a good point that you picked up there.<\/p>\n
We\u2019d be making a big mistake if we imagine that there\u2019s some not-too-bright guy sitting in a dark room somewhere with a computer and internet access, and coming up with these scams.<\/p>\n
It is not like that.<\/p>\n
The bad news behind that is that our public don\u2019t have a chance if they don\u2019t focus and don\u2019t have a really good look at what they are reading.<\/p>\n
At the FSCA conference, somebody told the story on one of the panels that struck me.<\/p>\n
This was a sophisticated investor in the industry who was about to be scammed \u2026<\/p>\n
The only way that he could see that the documents were forged, the only thing that tipped him off \u2013 you can imagine what trend we are talking about here \u2013 was that the Absa logo in this case was slightly off-centre, or off where it was supposed to be.<\/p>\n
This person then said, hang on, let me just check \u2013 and it turned out to be a scam.<\/p>\n
If that\u2019s the level of accuracy that a scammer goes through, then you can understand how bad it is.<\/p>\n
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But you are right. It\u2019s not an unsophisticated guy sitting in a dark corner. This is well planned.<\/p>\n
There are people well aware of what\u2019s happening in the world and of current affairs. It has become, I think, a very viable career to be part of a scam like this.<\/p>\n
Take into account it\u2019s also not one person. These are big organisations.<\/p>\n
If you look at how Banxso unfolded with a scammer behind the whole story, then feeding context through to Banxso itself, then you realise these are big organisations and they really are doing very well \u2013 and we have to do better if we want to combat that.<\/p>\n
JIMMY MOYAHA: You mentioned the Banxso conversation. I want to look at a new element that has come up as a result of that conversation. For many of the consumers out there, once an enforcement action has taken place, the assumption is then that nothing is done from that perspective.<\/p>\n
But we\u2019re now also seeing that the scammers are going a step further and impersonating officials that hope to help you recover your lost money.<\/p>\n
So now we\u2019re going beyond the initial scam of scamming the individual to take the money, but it\u2019s to say \u2018If you\u2019ve been a victim of this particular company, we are here to assist you\u2019. Even that itself is a scam.<\/p>\n
Can we just remind the listeners and the South African community of the official channels that should then be followed if monies are recovered, if monies are frozen, and how that works from a regulatory standpoint.<\/p>\n
GERHARD VAN DEVENTER: Thank you very much for that opportunity to say something about this. Yes, there is something that happens from time to time. It usually means we are impersonated, or somebody else is impersonated.<\/p>\n
The truth, to give you a short answer, is there is no way that the FSCA or the Prudential Authority or the Reserve Bank or the FIC, the Financial Intelligence Centre, is going to contact you and say, \u2018Pay me an amount of money and I\u2019ll help you to recover\u2019. That will never happen.<\/p>\n
The only way to recover money if you have a dispute is through the ombud system and, of course, if you take legal action yourself.<\/p>\n
So if there is money available, if there are assets available in these cases \u2013 and I have to remind the public of the sad truth that there seldom is \u2013 we would approach the FIC, which will do a freeze \u2026 on the bank account.<\/p>\n
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And the FIC from there will take you to the AFU [Asset Forfeiture Unit] and we will assist so that the AFU before court can get an order to preserve the funds, a preservation order.<\/p>\n
From there are a couple of ways it can go.<\/p>\n
It can go into curatorship, and an appointed official curator will then do that type of distribution of the assets. It\u2019s a long story and you will get official communication of that.<\/p>\n
Or of course the company can be placed into liquidation by the court. That\u2019ll be all over the news and an official liquidator will contact you.<\/p>\n
There is no such thing as somebody contacting you and saying: \u2018Listen, we can get your money back. We\u2019re going to give you some back, but you have to make a payment.\u2019<\/p>\n
You have to always treat that with the greatest of suspicion.<\/p>\n
And my advice to the public is, if they get that type of approach and it relates to one of our cases, contact us and speak to us.<\/p>\n
But I can say now the answer will be no, it is a scam.<\/p>\n
JIMMY MOYAHA: Folks, we can only do so much from our perspective. We have these conversations as often as we can so that you know what is going on out there and how to stay safe.<\/p>\n
But more important than anything, do your homework, do your research, and do not hand over your hard-earned money to organisations that you have not properly researched. We\u2019ll leave the conversation on that note.<\/p>\n
Thanks as always to the divisional head of enforcement at the Financial Sector Conduct Authority, Gerard van Deventer, for joining us to take a look at the latest round of warnings and how to recover your finances properly if you have been the victim of a scam.<\/p>\n
Read: Banxso and AfriMarkets reborn under different names?<\/p>\n
#Recovering #money #financial #scams<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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