The murder of Mrs Jette Jacobs, 67 of Australia in a Johannesburg guest house has revealed an international syndicate which is scamming West-Australians out of up to $1million a month in socalled 'online Nigerian romance scams'. Mrs Jacobs, from Perth, was found dead in a Johannesburg guest house - but the SAPS investigator, who had actually spoken to the young Nigerian man who had found her dead, did not detain him while they were investigating the cause of her death. The SAPS investigating the scene immediately decided, without waiting for the coroner's ruling, that it was 'suicide'. And despite the fact that all her belongings were missing, they still did not detain the young Nigerian man who had 'reported her dead'. They even spoke to him but let him go. Mrs Jacobs' money, credit cards, laptop computer and jewellery were missing. Still, the SAPS did not find this suspicious enough to detain the Nigerian man while the cause of her death was being investigated by the SAPS forensics division. The man who had reportedly found her has since then gone missing.
----
Meanwhile, the West Australian police launched a specialist-team to trace the huge amounts of money, up to $1million Australian dollars a month, which are leaving West Australian bank accounts and disappearing into such 'West African Online Romance Scams.' (report below).
---
Tragically, the West Australian police had written to Mrs Jacobs warning her that she was the victim of an online romance-scam. However the letter was sent to late and she was found dead in a Johannesburg guest house. The Australian police have also launched an international search for the alleged Nigerian scamster Jesse Orowo Omokoh, 28. He was the man who was let go by the South African police after reportedly finding her body after her 'suicide' in a Johannesburg guest house. The West Australian police showed documents to the news media, correspondence between Mrs Jacobs and this man, showing that he got at least $100,000 Australian dollars from Mrs Jacobs over a four-year period.
----------------
Johannesburg, South Africa -- 67 year-old Australian grandmother Jette Jacobs was found dead under deeply mysterious circumstances in a Johannesburg guest house in February 2013. Despite growing concerns from her family, she had travelled there to meet an 28 year-old Nigerian who called himself Jesse Orowo Omokoh, and who she struck up an online 'relationship' with. Her family in Australia said she had already paid the man $100,000 -- and the Australian police even had sent her a letter warning her that she could be the target of a Nigerian scam. However the letter arrived too late: the woman, Jette Jacobs by then had already left for SA and was found dead in a Johannesburg guest house two days after she met up with the man calling himself Jesse Orowo Omokoh.
According to AU News, the pair struck up an online relationship three years earlier. In 2010, Jacobs travelled to South Africa to meet him before he proposed late last year. Over several years she sent over $100,000 to him. After he proposed, she wanted to settle in Nigeria but her children had begged her to stay in Australia. Yahoo News reported that her money, credit cards, laptop computer and jewellery were missing. Omokoh was the last person to see Jacobs alive and told police he found her body but he has since disappeared. Although an empty pill bottle was found near her body and the South African police initially thought she had committed suicide, her children believe she was murdered. “Anybody who knew my mother would know that there is no way that she would do that,” her daughter told 6PR.Her son, who wants to be identified only as Mr Jacobs, told Yahoo News: ”After losing dad, mum was feeling very lonely so she went online and went to one of the dating sites and this young man contacted her and started to chat to her. Mum, not realising what she was getting herself into, started talking to this guy. This was about four years ago, and in that period of time they’d been chatting quite regularly, then she decided to travel to South Africa to meet him.” “We didn’t want her to go, we tried to stop her but she pushed us away and said we didn’t know what we were talking about. We didn’t understand he was a true friend and not one of those scams, and she really believed that she had someone that really loved her.”
--- A joint operation between West Australian Police and the Consumer Protection organisation annually tracks large amounts of money being sent from West Australia to West African countries. -- A letter was also sent to Mrs Jacobs warning she might be a victim of fraud but it arrived shortly after she had left Australia.
-- Australian Detective Senior Constable Robert Martin from the Major Fraud Squad, says the circumstances surrounding her death are suspicious. He told Yahoo News that the rising number of tragic occurrences from meeting a person online is alarmingly high.
“My warning is that unless you have met the person face-to-face you do not know what you are dealing with when you are talking to somebody online.
"It is absolutely fraught with danger and we would say don’t sent money to anybody that you have met on the internet. We also strongly urge people not to travel overseas to meet someone they have met on the computer.” The Police are still searching for Omokoh.
-----------------
http://www.bellanaija.com/2013/03/04/67-year-old-australian-grandma-found-dead-in-south-africa-after-meeting-with-28-year-old-nigerian-who-proposed-on-online-dating-site/
---------------
WEST AUSTRALIAN POLICE REPORT:
Up to $1million a month leaves WA-banks, disappear into African online 'romance' scams:
by Kaitlyn Offer PerthNow - (regarding the Jette Jacobs case) Picture: Det-Snr Constable Robert Martin from Major Fraud Squad with a copy of an email conversation involving dead WA woman Jette Jacobs. Source: PerthNow
PERTH, Australia. PerthNow: March 4 2013 UP TO $1 million is leaving West Australian bank accounts each month for West African countries in online scams, according to the Major Fraud Squad. The figure was revealed this morning in light of the death of Wagin woman Jette Jacobs, 67, who was found in her rented Johannesburg villa by police on February 9.
Ms Jacobs had travelled to South Africa in November last year to visit a Nigerian man she was having a relationship with on the internet. Detective Senior Constable Robert Martin from Major Fraud Squad’s Operation Sunbird said West Australians were losing tens of thousands of dollars, their homes, and families to online romance scams.
“Between $600,000/$700,000 and $1 million per month is leaving the state of Western Australia to West Africa, particular Nigeria and Ghana - and I must stress that’s just to those particular countries,” he said. Const Martin said the figure was just the “tip of the iceberg” as authorities try to work out how much goes to Europe, the UK and Asia. He said the scammers were siphoning money from 400 to 600 people each month.“Of those four-to-600 a number of them are serial senders,” Const Martin said.
Operation Sunbird started in early 2012, joined forces with the Department of Consumer Protection in October that year and is currently working on a database of scammers. “A number of the victims have been directed by the same offender to send money to Nigeria, Ghana, the UK, America and Malaysia, which shows there’s a systematic type of fraudulent activities from a criminal network which expands over countries,” Const Martin said.
“It’s not just one person sitting behind a computer pretending to be whoever to defraud people.” Const Martin said the victims were often brainwashed by the scammers, being sent supporting material like documents and photos to convince them to hand over their cash.
“These victims have been groomed over a long period of time,” he said. Operation Sunbird has been trying to visit those people who are deemed at risk of losing even more. “These people, on a lot of occasions, have based their whole hopes and dreams on the lies they have been told by the offender, so therefore to accept what we are saying is emotionally and financially devastating, in a lot of cases they have lost everything,” Const Martin said.
Consumer Protection commissioner Anne Driscoll said the scammers were “heartless, cruel criminals”. “They basically suck everything they can from someone and cast them aside,” she said. Ms Driscoll said the discovery of the amount of money leaving WA each month was “surprising”.
“We know that online relationships can actually be successful, but alarm bells need to go off when people start asking for money,” she said
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/millions-wiped-away-each-month-in-romance-frauds/story-e6frg6n6-1226590143133
↧