Israelis said conning Africans by posing as French minister
African leaders reportedly receive calls from people claiming to be Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, asking to wire funds to bail out ‘kidnapped secret agents’
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French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian filed a complaint late July claiming he was the victim of a scam which may originate in Israel, according to a report published Friday in Jeune Afrique, an online French-language publication covering news from Africa.
According to the report, several presidents of African countries were contacted by imposters imitating the voice of Drian over the phone, asking them to transfer funds – millions of euros – to various accounts located in tax havens around the world. French authorities suspect the perps may be living in Israel.
The story the impostors told the presidents: Several French secret agents were kidnapped by jihadists and, since France’s official policy is not to negotiate with terrorists, could they please pass the money to the accounts and then France would pay it back as part of the aid package it gives those countries. The whole deal was presented as a top secret affair.
No African leader was named in the Jeune Afrique article, and none was duped by the scam. They all called the office of Drian, which understood the scam was an attempt to siphon huge amounts of money out of Africa.
French police were aware of the type of scam – false transfer orders – which is akin to the smaller scale scam many readers who have received a troubling email from an email contact who has “lost their passport and need you to wire money.”
While many of the scams come from Nigeria and have become to be known as a 419 scam, after the number in the Nigerian criminal code dealing with fraud, France believes the impostors who pretended to be a French minister may be Israelis, or French citizens based in Israel.
Cases in which Israelis have tried to pull a 419 scam on heavyweight business people and statesmen have become a recurring concern in recent years, according to the report.
The trick, Jeune Afrique reported, relies on the mention of secret services, asking the victim to keep the whole affair secret and to wire the funds quickly before the “terrorists” act.
The Times of Israel Community.