{"id":869642,"date":"2026-08-17T07:28:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T05:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=869642"},"modified":"2026-08-17T07:29:44","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T05:29:44","slug":"new-mafia-group-targeting-some-of-the-biggest-companies-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/869642\/new-mafia-group-targeting-some-of-the-biggest-companies-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"New mafia group targeting some of the biggest companies in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The South African Insurance Crime Bureau (SAICB) has warned that organised criminal syndicates are increasingly targeting South Africa\u2019s insurance industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fraud cases are now being linked to more serious crimes, including hijackings, vehicle theft, murder and cybercrime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the feedback from SAICB CEO Garth de Klerk, who said there was a misconception that insurance fraud was a victimless crime because large companies could absorb the losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think a lot of people see insurance fraud as being victimless, and it\u2019s not the case,\u201d De Klerk said in an interview with The Money Show<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that insurance fraud was often connected to physical crimes, which ranged from staged vehicle accidents and hijackings to kidnapping and murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInsurance fraud is not victimless, and there\u2019s always a cost. Even if that cost is only monetary to the insurance industry, that cost is then passed over to the insurance companies,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to De Klerk, vehicle-related crime accounts for a significant portion of fraud in the short-term insurance sector. This includes staged hijackings, staged incidents, vehicle theft and vehicle cloning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the life insurance side, the SAICB is also seeing cases where people allegedly take out insurance policies on the lives of relatives or other people with criminal intentions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can insure my mom-in-law, my cousin, my auntie, and then bump them off for the benefits of an insurance policy. Unfortunately, we\u2019re seeing a rise in those types of murders,\u201d De Klerk said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said increased collaboration between insurers and law enforcement was also leading to more of these cases being detected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SAICB acts as a central point for information from insurers, receiving claims and intelligence from major companies across both the life and non-life sectors. It also operates a fraud hotline that receives anonymous tip-offs and whistleblower reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe take all of the information, we look for commonalities, we run algorithms, AI on top of it, and we look for the syndicates committing the fraud,\u201d De Klerk said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social media is becoming an important source of evidence<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
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SAICB CEO Garth de Klerk<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The organisation then investigates suspicious cases and works with law enforcement and prosecutors to build cases against alleged criminals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The organisation also examines a claimant\u2019s wider history. A recent policy or unusual claim may raise questions, but De Klerk stressed that it was not automatically evidence of fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, he added that investigators could check whether someone had claimed the same loss from multiple insurers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s unjustified enrichment, so it\u2019s illegal,\u201d he said. De Klerk said insurance crime was also moving into increasingly sophisticated areas, particularly cybercrime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we get into the cyber environment, the ballpark changes. You\u2019re talking about a different level or quality of criminal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the industry was seeing an increase in cyber-related incidents, including phishing scams, romance scams and sextortion, requiring investigators to develop new skills to track perpetrators who may be based anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social media is also becoming an important source of evidence. De Klerk said investigators could examine photographs, timestamps, geolocation information and other digital clues when building cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBad actors talk too much on social media. It\u2019s lovely. We really appreciate it, we enjoy it and long may it continue,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SAICBnoted that tackling organised insurance crime requires cooperation between multiple sectors. De Klerk said criminals often use proceeds from insurance-related crimes to finance other illicit activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey use the funds that they get from these illicit activities to fund other illicit activities, whether it\u2019s drug smuggling, human trafficking, money laundering, whatever it might be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The South African Insurance Crime Bureau (SAICB) has warned that organised criminal syndicates are increasingly targeting South Africa\u2019s insurance industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":855991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2089215162997768421","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2178536226300110","_sma_instagram_post_id":"17921594397409931","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[853,26120],"class_list":["post-869642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-south-africa","tag-the-south-african-insurance-crime-bureau-saicb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869642"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":869656,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869642\/revisions\/869656"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}