Multi-million million cyber fraud in small Eastern Province town

Edited by St Francis Chronicle: A former police woman was allegedly defrauded of about R3-million after being conned by a person allegedly acting dishonestly and purporting to be a top South African businessman, Patrice Motsepe, for the alleged purpose of theft of her cash and property.
In what the South African Hawks say in their press release was “a meticulously orchestrated fraud incident” reported in the small Eastern province town of Mqanduli, near Mthatha, on the Wild Coast, “the former police woman was allegedly targeted and exploited through an advanced social engineering operation executed between 5-7 December 2025.” This deception, according to the Hawks press release on 2 April, was alleged as “a calculated impersonation of Motsepe, globally known as an SA business leader. Motsepe’s identity was allegedly unlawfully appropriated to legitimise a fraudulent online investment presentation disseminated via Facebook.”
The Mthatha High Court subsequently granted the Hawks’ Priority Crime Specialised Investigation and National Prosecuting Authority a preservation order value of more than R2 million on 1 April 2026. The joint team secured the substantial preservation order in a complex, trans-digital investment fraud scheme.
The policewoman was apparently persuaded by the suspect fraudster, posing as a professional investment consultant, to become involved with a fraudulent registration interface that disclosed critical personal identifiers and financial access points. This then enabled the suspect to initiate direct engagement and progressively assert control over the woman’s financial decision-making processes. Through psychological manipulation and coercive persuasion, the woman was instructed to install remote access software (AnyDesk), granting the perpetrator unrestricted, real-time control over her banking environment.
This critical breach enabled the consolidation of financial resources into a central account from which funds were systematically siphoned into a network of mule accounts. And in a further escalation indicative of coercive financial exploitation, the policewoman victim was manipulated into liquidating personal assets, including a motor vehicle valued at approximately R450 000 under the guise of enhancing investment liquidity.
Concurrently, the suspect illicitly initiated credit facilities in the victim’s name across multiple financial institutions, deepening the financial harm. A case docket was opened and the investigation ensued.
After formally reporting this incident the case was immediately escalated to the Hawks’ Mthatha Serious Commercial Crime Investigation (SCCI), which in collaboration with the Priority Crime Specialised Investigation (PCSI), executed a high-level financial investigation with urgency and analytical depth. The cumulative financial prejudice sustained by the victim is estimated at about R3-million, reflecting direct losses and fraudulently incurred liabilities.
Last month on 17 March, the joint team was successfully granted an interim freezing order, effectively immobilising identified financial flows that were traced. This led to to securing a substantial portion of the defrauded funds, which amounted to+ 2 million, representing a significant containment of financial loss and critical disruption of the criminal benefit derived from he offence. The investigation continues.
The Acting Provincial Head of the Hawks, Brigadier Mluleki Dyasi said that the granting of the order signifies a tactical disruption of an organised cyber-enabled criminal enterprise, and also reinforces the Directorate’s evolving strategic posture in combating financially motivated crimes.