A 51-year-old man and a 28-year-old woman were detained in Khayelitsha and Parklands for allegedly taking part in a R930,000 romance scam.
Early on Friday, July 22, 2022, police from the Provincial Commercial Crimes Cyber Investigation unit conducted a tracing operation in Khayelitsha and Parklands with the goal of apprehending suspects in a romance scam involving R930 000-00.
The arrest, according to Western Cape police, was the result of a tracing operation carried out by members of the Provincial Commercial Crimes Cyber Investigation unit.
According to the police, the two are accused of fraud, theft, and violating laws intended to stop organised crime by being directly involved in a romance scam and receiving money from their victims.
Warrant Officer Joseph Swartbooi, a police spokesperson, said that electronic devices discovered on the property were seized.
The suspects are anticipated to appear in court in Atlantis Magistrate court once charged with the alleged offences, according to Swartbooi.
Swindling Rising in SA
Many elderly South African men and women have fallen victim to romance frauds, losing hundreds of thousands of their hard-earned funds to con artists who make a living out of defrauding people.
Two Pretoria women came out in June of this year to talk about how they were conned by a man who told them all kinds of lies before vanishin’ into thin air.
Two Pretoria women who met a man on a dating app and were persuaded to transfer him big sums of money for various reasons before disappearing spoke to W24 about how they lost thousands as a result.
According to Karen DuPlessis*, she lost R600 000 to a man she met in the parking lot of a mall.
Before she realised she was being conned, she claims she took out several loans to keep sending money to the man.