Serial scammer part 3

Background

Rustenburg – Platinum Weekly was made aware of a man pretending to be a lodge owner in our area, so we set out to investigate. We ended up going down a rabbit hole of scams.

The audacity of this serial scammer is mind boggling. We are placing only one or two of his scams (per week) in our newspapers. We already interviewed several of his victims. This serial scammer is also extremely dangerous and armed. He was recorded online, taking out his gun and threatening to shoot a man who confronted him about his scams.

It almost plays out like a movie… except it’s not. It’s real life and it’s real people who lost real money. It is a pity, however, that only some of his victims have opened criminal cases against him. In some of the cases his scams appear to be nothing more than a power play... a need to impress the ladies...

More and more victims are coming forward and Platinum Weekly aims to expose all of his scams in the weeks ahead. We hope to warn people about his modus operandi, so that they don’t get caught up in his web of lies. Hopefully he will be brought to book soon so that his identity can be revealed. 

To protect his victims, we will keep them anonymous.

Far from home

Victim 7 shared her story with Platinum Weekly. She saw a vacancy which was posted on Facebook for a receptionist at a game farm near Rustenburg. She applied for the position and received a call from Mr. Scammer shortly after.

She was interviewed online and after about a week of corresponding with Mr. Scammer, she was informed that she got the job and that she starts working on 1 February.

Because this new job opportunity was about 400km from where she stays, she decided to first have a look at the lodge and the people before packing up her whole life and moving to Rustenburg. Mr. Scammer welcomed the idea and invited her to come to ‘his’ lodge where he would then also give her, her contract of employment. (The circumstances of this scam are very similar to the scam in Part 1 of Serial Scammer)

Once she arrived at the lodge, things started to feel a bit ‘out of place’ but she gave him the benefit of the doubt. The red flags started going off when he told her that there are bugs in her bed and that she had to share a bed with him! 

This kite was not going to fly so she approached one of the lodge’s staff members and asked for another bed. The employee apparently looked a bit taken aback and she pulled the covers of the bed and said: “The bed is clean, we don’t have bugs at this place, look for yourself.” The victim told her that the ‘boss’ said that there are bugs in the bed. The employee apparently asked her which boss she was referring to. When Victim 7 pointed to Mr. Scammer, the employee indicated that Mr Scammer was not her boss. 

At this stage Victim 7 knew that something was wrong but was stuck in a strange town with a strange man and he did not leave her side. He was always with her and listening in on the conversations, when she phoned her mother. Apparently, the staff member at the lodge realised that something was wrong and she informed the foreman at the lodge who constantly checked in with Victim 7 to make sure that she was okay.

From the lodge they went to Kempton Park for a ‘business meeting’. Victim 7 told the Platinum Weekly that they were walking around in a mall for hours before finally sitting down at a restaurant, waiting to meet a business partner. A very suspicious looking man came to meet Mr. Scammer.

Victim 7 could apparently not hear what they were saying but they kept looking over at her and she got a strange feeling that she was in danger. A while later, another suspicious looking man met them and started talking in private with Mr Scammer (one side). She got the same looks as with the first visitor and she got the feeling that they were negotiating about something – maybe someone.

She reached out to a friend in the area and asked the friend to come and fetch her at the mall. At that point a third dodgy guy came over and started talking about a party where there would be drugs and girls.

Victim 7 told us that her phone’s battery started getting low and that she asked Mr. Scammer if she could go and charge her phone to which he made an extremely vulgar remark. She asked Mr Scammer to go to his car with her so that she could fetch her bags. “I feared for my life, but got out of there as quickly as possible,” she said.

She waited in another restaurant for a friend, who came to fetch her. 

During the short period of time she spent with Mr. Scammer, he constantly played on her emotions and he manipulated her. He apparently even pretended to be sick, looking for sympathy. Victim 7 said that Mr Scammer had a gun on him the whole time. The only money she lost was paying for the accommodation but emotionally she was left traumatised by what happened.

He operates all over the show. If some of these stories sound familiar to you, please let us know about it. Even if you were scammed a year or two ago, you can still report it to SAPS. We urge victims to go to their nearest police station to open a case. This dangerous man should be brought to book.

If you missed part two, you could read about it in Platinum Weekly’s 15 April issue.

Watch this space for part 4, where more of his scams will be exposed.

*Names have been withheld to protect the victims.

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