According to eBlockWatch, reports of police intimidation and bribery are common, and festive season roadblocks are not always what they seem.

Fake roadblocks

There appears to be a network of police officers setting up fake roadblocks, using a complex scheme to get restaurant patrons to hand over their money.

According to eBlockwatch’s Andre Snyman, a group of sector police from Randburg, Sandton and metro police officers are allegedly using unmarked police cars to stake out expensive vehicles leaving expensive restaurants, and reporting the direction in which they are travelling to a second marked police car which follows the target car and pulls the driver over to warn them of a roadblock ahead.

Snyman said that numerous reports have indicated that the officers then try to intimidate the drivers, whether they’ve had a drink or not, threatening them that the roadblock personnel will arrest them for driving under the influence.

The drivers are told that they can drive off using an alternative route that will take them away from the roadblock if they pay a bribe.

However, the upcoming roadblock is also manned by the scammers, using another police van with blue lights flashing lights a bit further down the road.

Your rights

If a single police vehicle tries to pull you over, you have the right to slow down and continue driving at the legal speed limit to your nearest police station if you don’t feel comfortable pulling over on the side of the road.

However, there’s a chance that if it’s a genuine police officer, he may misinterpret this as an attempt to evade arrest.

If a roadblock has been set up on a main road with multiple police vehicles and personnel, you are obligated to pull over. Police officers must be willing to identify themselves, as well as show physical identification. If they are not wearing full uniform or don’t have an identity badge displaying their name, you are within your rights to ask for another officer to attend to you.

While it may be unnecessary, you are legally obliged to take a breathalyser test or be taken to the surgeon general.

The legal alcohol limit in South Africa is 0.24mg/litre, or roughly one beer or shot of harder liquor every three to four hours for the average person.

Remember that number. 0.24mg/litre.

The officer must show you the breathalyser reading. If you’re tested and register under the limit on a breathalyser, you cannot be arrested for drinking and driving.

Any attempts by an officer to extort a bribe from you should be reported to your nearest police station, and there are ways in which you can gather evidence for your case.

Snyman advises that you make a note of the licence plate number of the police vehicle and its service number, which is painted on the side of the vehicle next to the precinct name. Don’t have a pencil and paper? Save the numbers on your cell phone somewhere.

Also, make a mental note of the number of officers, their race, names and any other identifying features that can be reported if a bribe is solicited.

Police the Police

The panic button calls for help and can pinpoint your location

Designed to provide drivers with the ability to record a conversation or bribery attempt, eBlockWatch’s system also sends out a message that you may be in trouble to four people designated by you, and reports the incident to your local police station.

To use the service, all you need to do is register as a member of eBlockwatch for free on their website. Once you are registered and set up on the eBlockwatch system, you are protected if you follow some basic steps.

If you are pulled over, dial 082 236 0003. The call goes through to a line that records your conversation for as long as the call is held.

It will also send an SMS to four friends or family members and they will be able to follow some basic instructions to listen to the recording and determine if you need help.

The call also triggers a message to your local police station, which can also determine if the situation has turned illegal or even violent and will allow eBlockwatch to trace your phone.

Even if you are not a member of eBlockwatch, the conversation will still be recorded and reported to eBlockwatch. They will just not have your information and won’t be able to trace you from their side.

However, you will be able to contact them for a copy of the recording at a later stage if necessary.

So you’ve managed to take down the details of the officers and their vehicle and recorded the conversation, and still you are threatened with arrest or thrown into the back of a police car. What do you do now?

The Justice Project South Africa also offers a service – Priority Assist – that provides 24-hour roadside assistance, 365 days a year, to anybody pulled over by the police and who feels threatened.

If you are threatened or arrested unlawfully, you or a family member can call the JPSA call centre, which can send legal help or provide assistance at any time of the day. People under the age of 30 years, women travelling on their own and senior citizens are usually the most likely to be targeted by corrupt police, but Priority Assist does not discriminate.

“The service is not designed to interfere in any way with legitimate law enforcement, but is designed to actively and effectively deal with issues of corruption and abuse and give motorists the peace of mind in knowing that they are no longer alone when they become the target of a traffic stop,” the JPSA website reads.

To access this service, one needs to sign up with the JPSA on their website which costs R50 a month per main member with an additional R25 for Priority Assist.

Panic button

eBlockWatch is actually an all-round emergency response team.  You can set up a panic button on your cell phone that links you to four pre-selected people.

If you set up the Track Your Mate function, which enables phone tracking, hitting the panic button sends two SMS messages to your pre-selected four people: the first says you need help, the second gives your location.

I tested it. My son, who was more than 1,500 km away from me at the time, hit the panic button on his phone.

Within a few seconds the first SMS came in saying he needed help, it gave his cell phone number to call to find out if he was in trouble, and gave the eBlockWatch emergency number to call if he did need help.  The second SMS arrived while I was reading the first, and it gave his location down to the street and suburb he was in, as well as the nearest intersecting street.

That’s as far as the automated system goes unless you take further action. Since ours was a test, we left it at that. However, in the event that the person really is in trouble, one of the designated four would call the given emergency number, which would have eBlockWatch mobilising the troops.

It would also trigger the system to update the person’s location at regular intervals.

A spin-off to the panic button is the ability to install the Phone Home application on laptops and PCs, which can be used to track and recover these items if stolen.

The beauty of eBlockWatch is that it harnesses the collective clout of the closest communities and cuts through red tape, enabling an instant response to assist people in trouble.

I like it. It works. Just choose your designated four people carefully. Not much point nominating someone who spends so much time at fancy restaurants that he’s probably caught up in one of those fake roadblocks.

(article appeared on Tell it Like it is http://www.tellitlikeitis.co.za/index.php/2011/11/28/surviving-the-festive-crime-season/)

702 has picked the story and is running with it:

Members please save 082-236-0003 and call when stopped by police. This service will record your conversation and save it on our server

Eyewitness News has learnt the Tshwane metro police’s internal investigations unit is trying to track down corrupt colleagues operating in eastern Pretoria.

Several motorists allege officers threaten them with arrest if they do not hand over cash.

Eyewitness News can confirm the officers fingered by motorists are based at the Tshwane metro police’s region seven office.

It is understood investigators are now using GPS data to confirm that the vehicle was in fact in the area and are checking log books to confirm the occupants’ identities.

This woman’s boyfriend was accused of speeding.

“The guy said we can make a plan, I’ll keep your drivers license then lets drive to the ATM and you can give me a R1,000. We met him on the side of the road and they exchanged the driver’s license for the cash,” she said.

The Tshwane metro police have yet to respond officially.

Tshwane police told the Saturday Star that young people were being snatched by drug dealers, forced to get hooked on drugs and then made to work as sex slaves or as drug dealers to feed their habit.

“It has become a serious problem in Pretoria,” said Alta Fourie, Tshwane Metro Police spokeswoman.

“Every month we are working on more and more cases where students are being abducted by drug dealers. Girls and boys both are being abducted by drug dealers and then injected with heroin to become drug addicts.”

Fourie said the problem had spread to all areas of Pretoria including Hatfield, Sunnyside, Brooklyn and Centurion.

She was speaking shortly after a third Pretoria man, Ryan Abdo, 31, went missing on Thursday without a trace.

University of Pretoria student Duncan Allan, 22, is still missing after disappearing three weeks ago, baffling police.

Now Abdo’s family are in a desperate race to find him.

Abdo is the third person to disappear in less than a month.

Earlier, Gerrie van Rensburg, the son of Dominee Jacie van Rensburg, moderator of the NG Church in Western Transvaal, was allegedly kidnapped but later found in the boot of his car in Waltloo, a victim of drug involvement.

Duncan’s father, Tim Allan, said the family still had not heard anything from him. The 22-year-old went missing after going to fetch his car, a green Jetta CSX, from Lynnwood Motors in Atterbury Road, Menlo Park, after it had been serviced.

There has been no word since about his whereabouts.

The third-year BCom student’s phone has remained switched off, his bank card has not been used and his parents, friends and hostel acquaintances have not heard from him.

Fourie said they had been working on a number of operations to tackle the increasing drug problem in Pretoria.

“While we run operations throughout the month, our focus is towards the end of the month when most people have the money to go out,” she said.

“We put a number of teams out in different areas of Pretoria at all the entertainment venues as this is normally where drug dealers find their victims. If we are lucky enough to free the victims from drug dealers, we immediately send them to a safe haven where they can clean up their drug problem.”

Senior Superintendent Julius Johnson of Tshwane Metro Police said it had been an ongoing problem.

“These drug dealers often hang out at night clubs around Pretoria. They will spike their victims’ drinks with a date-rape drug and then take them to a holding place where they will get injected with drugs.

“They will keep them until they are completely dependent on drugs and then make them work to pay for their drug addictions.”

Missing persons outfit Eblockwatch has been on high alert following the rash of disappearances.

“We feel that there has been a network of drug dealers that have been getting nasty in Pretoria,” said Andre Snyman, spokesperson for Eblockwatch.

“It is not a new thing, however – it has been happening for many years now. Drug dealers will go to any lengths to make sure they get paid, and can even abduct a drug addict’s family member and hold them for ransom until they get paid.”

Meanwhile, the University of Pretoria is offering social and psychological services to hostel residents and students traumatised by the incident.

The Department of Security Services had e-mailed students and posted memos on the varsity intranet, said spokeswoman Nicolize Mulder.

“Pamphlets have been handed out by hostel residents, and social networks including Facebook and Twitter are being used to try and find Duncan.”

She said information on the exact circumstances of Duncan’s disappearance was unclear and “any speculation as to the circumstances of his disappearance or similarities with other cases would be inappropriate at this stage.”

Meanwhile, the SAPS cannot confirm that any of the youngsters who have gone missing were abducted.

“We are not sure at this point. They are all just rumours that are spreading,” said Brooklyn Police spokesperson Warrant Officer Annabel Middleton. Most rumours were “false” and “those that have gone missing just claim to have been abducted, but instead go on a drug binge for days”.

This was not to say abductions did not happen.

This is a bully and eblockwatch likes to turn bullies into jabbering wrecks. We will use all our digital forensic skills to see if there is a link between the bully and the ex-husband.
If there is we will make him famous and make him eat dirt.
This is cyber bullying at its worst.

“Hi Andre

Attached please find previous correspondence sent to you in 2007 just to refresh your memory regarding the harassment -by who I believe is definitely my ex-husband xxxxxxx. You will recall that he came to see your control center after the above incidents and after that the SMS’ stopped for a very long time.

As a result of the harassment -I eventually sold the house I lived in.  After a period of around 7 months the SMS’ started again -from 0xxxxxxxx.  Two came from 0xxxxxxxxxx.  When these numbers are called they seem to go onto a computer.  The nature of these SMS messages follow the pattern of all previous behavior – vulgar comments about me and comments on anyone I get involved with – my whereabouts etc, etc.

He left the company I was working for after messing with the computers (deleting information etc) and gathering information from cyberspace – but over the past two years he once again became involved with placing business through the financial services company I work for and on several occasions after he had left the building – I went out and my car’s tyres had been spiked with screws.  It became so bad that each time I replaced the tyres I had 5 more screws in them shortly after.  The local garage already knew me – it was really awful and although I knew it was him, I couldn’t prove a thing.

One day I found a set of his keys lying next to my car at the office – and a drill bit.  I picked up the keys and put them in my car door.  When I left the office the keys were gone.  He had obviously come back (obviously also has made car keys for my car) and removed the evidence.  This also happened at other places where my car was parked for some time.

I can go on and on relating incidents to you.  Since June last year my daughter xxxxxx who was having a hard time financially and in her personal life, asked my ex-husband whether her two sons could live at his place until such time as she was financially stable again and able to take them back.  He seemed quite settled and has a girlfriend so she thought it was safe to do so.  He was more than willing and very nice about it.  In March this year the eldest went to school in xxxxxx so moved out of the house but the youngest – age 14 – xxxxxx, stayed on with xxxxxx.

Since March this year I started receiving vulgar SMS messages.  Having been through so many years of this – I chose to believe that he was trying to get to me by sending these and it was not really true as he was very good to the boys on the surface.

However – in May – my grandson asked me to come and see him after trying on two other occasions to let me know there was something wrong.  He related to me that he thinks he is being drugged as he feels as though he’s dreaming – but he was in my ex-husband’s bedroom and ‘Pop’ as he calls him was raping him.  The next day my ex-husband refused to speak to him much.  Bear in mind he knew nothing at all about the SMS I had been receiving.  In fact, I didn’t even tell my daughter about them.

He was so upset about this incident which he was finding difficult to recall and relate, that I told my daughter about what he told me and also showed her the SMS messages.  She took him to Dr. xxxxx in xxxxxx for an examination.  The doctor has written a report and my grandson has been taken for trauma counseling at the xxxxxx Clinic at the xxxxxx hospital. I have also made a police case and have submitted all the information to the police at xxxxxx with the doctors report.  They have lodged this with the CPU.  I have a case number but have had no feedback other than an interview with a policeman from the CPU who came to take a statement at my office a few weeks ago.  They haven’t contacted my daughter or grandson yet.  My grandson is staying with his mom now in xxxxxx.

As discussed today – I really need this handled urgently and professionally to stop this for once and for all.  It seems he’s becoming more and more dangerous and the police take too long to get to the bottom of these things.  This is really criminal now and I trust you can help me to trace the numbers and expose him.

If you require any other information please let me know.”

Watch this space for updates on this case

Last week Riana Smalberger, the bright spark who heads up our eblockwatch cyber team, gave me some insight into what happens when you receive an email like this from a bank:

Dear Client, money has been deposited into your account.To see further details please LOGIN.

If you have any questions or would like more information, email ibsupport@standardbank.co.za or call our Customer Contact Centre on 0800 020 600. If you are calling from outside South Africa, call +27 11 299 4114.

Leave it alone, do not touch!

Why, what could happen? You can lose all your money.

Read what Riana has to say:

Beware of click on links that take you to a fake website

Lesson 101: Make sure that after clicking on a link in an email that it actually takes you to the right website. In the same way somebody crafted the email example, criminals design websites to look like the real thing!  Ensure the address of the website is correct – for instance if you are clicking on a link toNedbank’s website the address in your browser address bar should read www.nedbank.co.za and not something like biomistshop.co.kr/bbshop/zbbord/main.php

So what are the cyber con artists up too and who are they?

Firstly they are not a few guys sitting in Hilbrow with a computer and a fax machine. They are a worldwide syndicate operating in many countries with sophisticated technology and hundreds of bank accounts to bounce your money to.

Take a look at the above email. This email gets sent to thousands of people and, unfortunately, a certain percentage of them click on the link.

The link may install a Trojan horse which will download keystroke logger software. Keystroke loggers send information about what you are doing on your computer across the internet to criminals.  Your emails will be intercepted and the websites you visit will be recorded. When you do online banking the logger will pick up your password and forward it to the criminals

Their next move will be to wait till late on a Saturday night when you are sleeping and all the banks are closed. Just before midnight they will strike. With inside help they will log into your bank account and add a beneficiary. Your SIM card has been swapped during the day and the activation pin code will be sent to them which will allow them to add a beneficiary. Your daily limit will be refreshed and as the clock strikes midnight they will transfer another daily limit out of your account. Before you realise what is going on the money has been transferred out of their accounts to hundreds of smaller accounts worldwide. Your bank is helpless it is like watching a smash and grab run off into the night with your wallet. It is gone.

Eblockwatch was founded in April 2001 and has steadily evolved into a network of 74535 members. We together have out foxed and out played the roughest and toughest criminals out there. We have seen cooperates, opportunists and even the police try to emulate what we have built up over the years, without success.

Strangely enough the group which nearly succeeded in hijacking eblockwatch ten years ago were the guys at the Police head office in Pretoria. It is quite funny now when I think back of what happened. Back then, I was asked to give a presentation at what I thought was a local police station in Pretoria. Only when I was ushered into a board room full of stony faced police officers wearing more metal than Ozzy Osborne in his hay day, did I realise this was my time to shine.

I gave a presentation, which ran on pure adrenaline, on what eblockwatch was all about, even though I was not so sure myself what we wanted to achieve it was really quiet scary. When I stopped talking there was a deadly silence and I was escorted out to wait.

An hour later when my heart rate had returned to normal, the door opened again and I was ordered back into the lion’s den. Not sure whether I was to smile or solute, I stood and waited for their reaction like an American Idols wannabe. A commissioner barked out that they liked the idea but this is how it was going to work. “We talk, you listen and then we will sign a tender with you.”  I was tempted to sell my soul for a quick buck but I did what I did best. I opened my big mouth and spoke to the commissioner like I was of equal rank and said that was not my game plan. A bad career move.

Although I refused to accept their terms, they strung me along for two years and sent their technical team to look under my bonnet (my software). Once that had happened things went quiet until the police spokesperson announced in the press that they were starting a project in Orange Farm called “Teta Africa Teta” which means “Talk Africa Talk” Eblockwatch disguised in Blue.

Today eblockwatch is under threat again.

If the Protection of Information Bill is passed then I believe my retirement days will be on Robben Island. If a member supplies information which is regarded as too close to the truth, we both get a cell for 25 years. Eblockwatch has over 10,000 crimes registered on our crime map and we have exposed many dirty cops.

While we still have a chance let us increase our membership to 100,000 and help create a source for the investigative journalists registered as members. Do not leave this too late so please get your friends to register now. Eblockwatch passes your leads supplied to trusted journalists who waste no time in making sure that those who abuse their powers are exposed. Right now we are working behind the scenes with two top groups of investigative journalist to expose the rhino poaches with rubber stamps. We are hoping to give them horns.

Did you know that eblockwatch was first to tell the media that Brett Kebble had been shot? Did you know that eblockwatch works closely with good cop’s to stake out bad cops? Did you know eblockwatch tracks down criminals and points good cops in their direction? Our members are a major source for News rooms. Your news is often tomorrow’s headlines.

Let’s not have our lights switched off; let us put up a massive community resistance to the new bill the government wants to pass.

Ask your friends to register with www.eblockwatch.co.za and increase our fire power for when we need it later this year. Eblockwatch will harness the collective clout of our members via sms or email when the time is right. More members more power. Act while we can, register your friends on eblockwatch now.

“Not since the days of apartheid has freedom of speech been under such threat in South Africa.”

Firstly, there is the Protection of Information (POI) Bill that will give the government wide-ranging powers to classify state information and jail those who reveal it. Secondly, the ANC and SACP is pushing for a state-appointed media tribunal to oversee complaints against journalists.  Lastly, the jackboot arrest and detention of Sunday Times investigative reporter Mzilikazi wa Afrika on the basis that he received a fax purporting to be the resignation of the Mpumalanga premier (but never wrote a story) suggests, in Wa Afrika’s own assessment, that the state plans to abuse both the POI Bill and proposed media tribunal.”

http://www.journalism.co.za/a-guide-to-the-current-debate-on-threats-to-freedom-of-speech.html

Eblockwatch is putting together an eblockwatch Anti-bribing Dream Team to stop police extorting bribes and to stop motorists paying bribes. Eblockwatch and its members’ will assist Provincial Commissioner Mzwandile Petros with his effort to keep the police force free of corrupt police officers.
This week end eblockwatch’s Anti bribing Dream Team will launch its campaign in the Gauteng area.
To find out how you can have dirty cops arrested and to find out how you could get into more trouble by offering a bribe.
The eblockwatch Anti Bribing Dream Team consists of you, many eblockwatch members and media members armed with pens, cameras and recorders.
Remember that we will only assist those eblockwatch members who have registered correctly.
Register on www.eblockwatch.co.za and have any questions answered on our blog http://www.eblockwatch.co.za/blog/

Beware we are on both sides. Clean cops taking down dirty motorists and clean motorists taking down dirty cops.
You have been warned.
Please log in to www.eblockwatch.co.za and make sure that your support members have been added and then send an email to webmaster@eblockwatch.co.za to say you have done so. We will then send a return email with contact numbers for you to call to mobilise the eblockwatch Dream Team.

South Africans witnessed a phenomenon that most regarded as just another South African crime story. Only a few sat up and marvelled at what happened.

So what happened when South African residents turned on the rhino poachers?

Rhinos have been poached for years, many years. There’s nothing new about this, but today rhino poaching has been catapulted into a new category – a dangerous occupation. It is no longer a flash in the news; it is now a socially unacceptable crime. Rhinos are now more protected than Paris Hilton’s lap dog.

So what happened?

You got involved. Many of you got involved. You were given a clear mandate on how to do your bit from the safety of your lap top.  Community emotions snowballed into a national, and eventually an international, powerball which prioritised incidents and challenged those who could physically do something about the rhino poaching to do what they could. Poaching syndicates were plucked out of the bush and into the courts in no time. That was community power in action at its best.

So how did this happen? How can we now make people living in South Africa safer?

The perfect storm scenario! The contributing facts which made rhino poaching a dangerous occupation were:

• There was a spike in rhino poaching which raised red flags.

• There was a need to keep South Africa galvanised after the world cup.
• Existing security networks gelled to create a Dream Team. A team of security specialists collectively harnessed their fields of expertises with communities and the police to smash the rhino syndicates.

Then LeadSA, led by the ever inspiring John Robbie and Yusuf Abramjee happened. The Media flexed their muscles and the different groups working independently galvanised.  Within a period of one month, the rhino breathed a sigh of relief. The likes of 702 and the Independent Newspaper Group called crime fighters together and a committee was formed. However, the magic was not in the committee but in the ever- supportive role the media played.  Every wannabee rhino saviour elbowed his way into the “Save the Rhino and catch a poacher’ competition to see who was going to bag the poachers first.  No group charged for their services but the race was on. The police mobilised their Hawks like it was the beginning of the migration and Eblockwatch members kept their ears and eyes to the ground, watching, waiting, listening and alerting eblockwatch of any suspicious activity in and around rhino country.

Stroppie, our eblockwatch hero, and his supporters of handpicked crime busters, sponsored by Tracker, were mobilised when alerts of possible rhino poachers were received.  Eblockwatch coordinated sorties into rhino country sending Stroppie and his dream team in hot pursuit of poachers.

Eblockwatch’s community communication system kept communities informed of possible attacks on rhinos and linked normally opposing security networks to work together as a team.

Eblockwatch has always believed that harnessing the collective services, goodwill and resources of a community and mobilising it at the right time at the right place, is the key to solving any problem.

Rhino poachers proved to us all that we ARE capable of uniting the majority of South Africans, at the right place and the right time with the right team to do the right thing.

Eblockwatch is going to take this concept to a new level. We are going to push the envelope with those who know how, together with those who can and those who want to, and we are creating an incredible connection between Sandtonites and the Alexandra residents.

We are going to harness the collective firepower of Tracker to support community street patrol groups in Alexandra with private security and police back up.

Eblockwatch is going to create eblockwatch Township Support Dream Teams to make this happen.

This incredible connection is hopefully going to be the first step towards building stronger and more trusting relationships between suburbs and neighbouring townships throughout South Africa.

Just as Eblockwatch’s Rhino Anti Poaching Dream Team responded to rhino poaching incidents, eblockwatch will link Tracker to respond to incidents when called on by eblockwatch Alexandra Mammas. The Alexandra Mammas is a network of unemployed ladies linked to the eblockwatch network, who patrol Alexandra streets at night protecting their families while they sleep.

Eblockwatch Community support Dream Teams will only ever be mobilised in real emergencies and only by the Township patrols team leader. The response will not only make life in Alexandra safer but will also build good will between Sandton and Alexandra. Eblockwatch believes this small service will also erode the support structures of criminals and make Alexandra a no-go zone for criminals.

A collective response to an incident by the Tracker and police response units will be the show of force needed to send a message throughout the community that Eblockwatch Township Dream Teams will look after every South African.  Eblockwatch will register as many Sandton residents on www.eblockwatch.co.za and link them to Alexandra residents via a community blog. This is where the two communities can exchange war stories and collectively solve each other’s problems. I believe that if Sandton looks after Alexandra, Alexandra will make Sandton a safe place to live in.

Andre Snyman

Founder of www.eblockwatch.co.za