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Good riddance. It may be tough to prove that you are innocent if you agree to let 419 scammers transfer victims money into your account. So beware of job scams that require you to do such money transfer. Fortunately or not, in this case the money mule was jailed for only 6 months.

A second thing to be aware is that scammers may target your name and tailor-make a 419 scam that matches your name. In this scam, the victim Izak Lintvelt received a mail that says he is the sole beneficiary of the estate of a rich man who has died, and they share the same last name.

The court earlier heard that the victim, Izak Lintvelt, received an e-mail two years ago, supposedly from a London solicitor who introduced himself as Barrister Tom Hickman.

According to the e-mail, Lintvelt was the only living relative of Randolf Lintvelt, who died in October 1989, and whose estate executor was Hickman.

It informed Lintvelt that as the sole beneficiary, he could claim from the estate, which was worth US13,8 million.

However, in order to claim against the estate, he first had to pay R789,300 into the solicitor’s bank account for legal and consultation fees, documentation and revenue charges, which he did.

The two Nigerian men, named “Lucky” and “Pasta”, persuaded Mqonci to allow them to deposit this money into his bank account.

Mqonci was to withdraw the money for them, and keep R180,000 for himself.

Chabillal said only the prosecutor could explain why Mqonci was not charged with fraud, in addition to aiding and abetting.

Mqonci’s role had been pivotal, as without it the scam could not have succeeded, the magistrate said.

He said Lintvelt was defrauded out of an astronomical amount, and that the amount Mqonci received was “huge for a bank teller earning a salary” .