advertisement
Facebook
X
LinkedIn
WhatsApp
Reddit

SA’s digital Bonnie and Clyde arrested

In a tale one would expect more from Hollywood than from the local 7PM news; a group of people have been arrested for a rather elaborate cyber crime carried out against the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) that resulted in the theft of over R8.7 million.

A report from Times Live details how married couple, Darius and Janene Rhoda, were arrested after a three-day, multi-million rand spending spree on electronics, jewels and air tickets. The Rhodas as well as their co-accused, Michael Tsegofatso Kekana, Kagiso Matsimela and Ishmael Mathabathe Sathekge, are all currently out on R2 000 bail each after appearing in the Pretoria Commercial Crimes Court earlier this week.

By installing keystroke logging software onto the computers used to do internet banking for the RTMC, the group was able to gain access to the bank accounts which happen to also hold the money paid by motorists to settle traffic fines. The money was transferred out of the RTMC’s bank account in 21 separate transactions into a series of bank accounts which was then transferred through a series of secondary bank accounts opened using fraudulent documentation a further 29 times in an effort to launder the money.

Hawks spokesman Paul Ramaloko said in a statement that the five suspects are facing charges of fraud, money laundering, conspiracy, forgery and contravention of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act.

“During the investigation the police seized computers and cellphones of corporation employees whose accounts were hacked. After imaging the devices, the extent of the hacking was discovered,” Ramaloko said. “Investigators seized three key loggers, which were found hidden in various offices of the Road Traffic Management Corporation.”

According to Ramaloko, once the fraud had been discovered detectives from both the Electronic Crimes Unit and the Digital Forensic Laboratory along with officials from the affected banks began tracing the flow of the money through the accounts and have subsequently frozen the remaining funds in the accounts.

[Source – Times Live, Image – File]

advertisement

About Author

advertisement

Related News

advertisement