Four people suspected of committing cyber fraud appeared in Cape Town’s Goodwood Magistrates’ Court today (Monday 23 March) following their arrest on Friday 20 March by members of the Hawks’ Serious Organised Crime Investigation team.

The group, believed to be foreign nationals, was arrested at a premise in Bothasig by the Hawks and City of Cape Town’s Law Enforcement officers, who were acting on information received about an illegal abalone storage facility in the area.

Zinzi Hani, Hawks spokesperson, said during the investigation the team spotted one female suspect entering the premises and, on entering the premises themselves, officials found three more suspects in a garage busy working on their laptops. She said on further inspection they discovered numerous cellphones, sim cards, various bank cards, a point of service (POS) card reader, card printer, blank bank cards as well as a black ledger containing information with regards to transactions.

The team established that the suspects were busy cloning various cards. A call was made to the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team, their Cybercrime Investigation team, Local Criminal Record Centre as well as Sabric to take the crime scene over.

Hani said four laptops, 103 cellphones, 82 bank cards, 187 sim cards, one POS machine and three notebooks were collected.

The four suspects, three women and a man, are aged 36 to 48 years. They were arrested for unlawful interception of data, unlawful acts irrespective of software or hardware tool, cyber fraud and possession of suspected stolen property.