Bryanston cybercrime ring siphoned billions from retirees worldwide

A highly sophisticated fraud operation allegedly run from offices in Bryanston, Johannesburg, left vulnerable victims across the world counting their losses.

Investigators say call centre agents posed as investment advisers, convincing retirees to hand over their retirement savings.

“We were instructed in this matter in 2021, and by 2022, it was escalated to a project with The Hawks, which involved Interpol, and various international law enforcement agencies, including US Homeland Security,” says crime expert and IRS forensic investigator Chad Thomas.

Over more than a decade, the syndicate is believed to have siphoned billions of rands.

It managed to evade detection by constantly changing locations. Thomas says the setup was extremely sophisticated.

"The syndicate that operated out of South Africa would have countless call centres, that had a plug and play system that if they were in any way under suspicion they would unplug their system, go to a new call centre and be back up and operating in a couple of hours."

The accused allegedly earned up to R15,000 a month, using fake identities, and even advanced software to alter their voices and accents.

The initial victims were retirees from Australia, but later victims were identified in the United States, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand.

"Just the 42 clients that we represented out of Australia had lost close to R200 million; it's quite unbelievable, it's the stuff of movies."

Thomas says there were more than 20,000 victims. He says the scale and level of deception make claims of ignorance by the accused difficult to believe. Estimates put the total losses globally at around R10 billion.

“These people, within 24 hours of being recruited, knew exactly what they were doing. They would take up an alias, and they would have a script and sell a non-existent investment to foreigners,” he explains.

Despite the vast sums stolen from the victims, many of the suspects are now represented by Legal Aid.

To listen to Thomas in conversation with 702's Bongani Bingwa, use the audio player below: