Briton kidnapped by Nigerian gang in cash fraud
By Chris Hastings and Rajeev Syal
12:01AM BST 15 Jul 2001
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A BRITISH businessman told yesterday how he was kidnapped by a Nigerian crime syndicate after being lured to South Africa by the promise of a lucrative deal.
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Josef Raca, 68, from Northamptonshire, flew to Johannesburg last week expecting to meet a syndicate of Nigerian businessman who were seeking his help to transfer a large amount of cash out of Africa.
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Just minutes after arriving he was bundled into a car by a man and a woman who had been waiting for him. They then rang his wife in Britain and demanded £20,000 for his safe return. Mrs Raca called the police who with the aid of the South African authorities traced the call.
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By the morning of the drop off, the members of the gang had grown increasingly nervous. They panicked and freed their dazed victim near the airport. When they went to collect the payment later, police lay in wait.
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Eugene Opperman, a spokesman for North Rand police, said: "Intensified overt and covert police inquiries obviously made the kidnappers extremely nervous and so they dumped him before picking up the ransom. He was hungry, tired and very stressed. We are concerned that one day, one of these gangs will kill their victim."
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Mr Raca said: "I don't mind telling you I was very frightened. I crawled and begged and kept trying to persuade them not to kill me. All they wanted was the Pin numbers for my credit cards. I told them I did not have any Pin numbers and told them to take my Tesco card instead because they would be able to get some petrol with it."
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Mr Raca, who was born in Poland but came to Britain in 1952, was able to convince the kidnappers that the only way their ransom demands would be met was if he called his family back in Northampton. Slipping in a few words of Polish he told his wife, Aurelia, to contact the police.
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Mr Raca was a victim of a so-called "419 Nigerian letter" - an advanced-fee fraud named after the section of the Nigerian penal code that covers the crime. An individual is sent a letter, fax or email apparently from an "official" foreign government or agency, that offers to transfer millions of pounds into the person's personal bank account.
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Throughout the fraud, the victim is asked to provide advance fees for taxes, legal fees, transaction fees and bribes.
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Britain's National Crime Squad said recent success in fighting the fraud, which started in Nigeria, meant the criminals were sending the letters from other countries such as South Africa. More than 78,000 "419" letters were received in London over the past three years.
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The kidnapping of Mr Raca is the latest in a series of elaborate frauds perpetrated by criminal gangs in Africa.
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The Sunday Telegraph has learnt that up to 1,000 British individuals and organisations are targetted each week.
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The practice is not new but the increased use of email has meant that hundreds rather than dozens of people are now being approached. Last week, the Charity Commission wrote to more than 100,000 charities urging them to be on their guard.
