South Korean man and his daughter lured to Africa by fraudulent email promising tens of millions of dollars in lottery scheme

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

The bigger the lie, the more it will be believed, to paraphrase the Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels. So when a South Korean man received an email promising him tens of millions of dollars in a lottery scheme if he travelled to South Africa, he fell for it.

The offer turned out to be a so-called 419 scam on an epic scale. South African police say the credulous man arrived with his daughter only for both to be taken hostage in a township for four days.

The kidnappers, a mainly Nigerian gang, demanded a ransom of $10m (£6.5m) but were thwarted by police who raided the house and freed the pair.

The term 419 scam to describe a confidence trick refers to section 419 of the Nigerian criminal code for obtaining property through fraud. Few users of email worldwide have been spared messages, often badly spelled, offering to deposit huge sums of money in their account for tenuous reasons.

While most instantly hit the delete button, the unnamed 65-year-old from South Korea and his daughter, in her 30s, evidently had a trusting nature. They landed at OR Tambo international airport in Johannesburg last week.

Col McIntosh Polela of the South African police service (Saps) said: "The suspects allegedly tasked a driver to fetch the victims from OR Tambo airport. The driver and the two Korean nationals were kidnapped and kept at a house in Meadowlands, Soweto.

"The driver managed to escape and alert the police. The suspects demanded a $10m ransom from the 65-year-old man's wife (who was back in South Korea), to be deposited into an account in Singapore. The amount was eventually negotiated down to $120,000 (£78,000).

"While the negotiations were ongoing, the wife alerted the South Korean embassy in South Africa. Members of the Saps rescued the captives, before the ransom money was deposited."

Six suspects, five Nigerians and a South African, were arrested during the early-morning rescue and charged with kidnapping. The South Koreans, tearful but grateful, left the country as soon as they could, without waiting to give evidence in court.

"They declined to testify because they were traumatised," Polela added. "They were also embarrassed at being lured to South Africa. This is common once victims discover they've been fooled."