A 70-year-old man lost thousands of rands to a seductive scammer, an alleged local woman introducing herself as Katie Alicia (30), who managed to trick him with manipulating tactics.
In her WhatsApp interactions with him, Alicia gave the impression of being a Paarlite living in a block of flats in Lady Grey Street.
Their interaction began in mid-September. After she said hallo, the man insisted to know exactly where she knew him from, and why she reached out.
“I can’t remember very well, I just got your number on my phone saved as [his name and surname] here on my phone,” (sic) she said, initiating her con.
Only once the man had caught a flight to Cape Town International Airport all the way from Johannesburg and waited for Alicia to pick him up, did he realise their flirtations were all a ruse.
Successful attempts to gouge small amounts step-by-step started at only R60 and added up to R4 600 in total.
“Conversations would start lightly and at the end of a chat she would ask me to help her with R64 to reboot her disabled bank account.
“As time passed, she communicated daily and requested small amounts for airtime or data. On one occasion I sent her R250 for a room fan. Then the requests came more often.”
On one occasion her so-called grandfather named Gert (possibly another scam victim) sent him an amount which he redirected to her via eWallet because they banked at the same bank.
“The following day I received a message from her saying that her grandfather was sending me R1 000, that I must send her R400 and keep the rest for what I had spent previously.”
In reading the WhatsApp conversation, it is clear that Alicia manipulated him with rather alluring pictures of beautiful women (who do not all look the same) at every sign of suspicion he had posed.
“Well like a fool I believed her and sent her the money before I received any from her grandfather as promised. I didn’t receive any money from her grandfather either.”
Alicia played a few tricks up her skimpy sleeves, involving family member sagas to gauge a free flight and money for a B&B.
“I didn’t buy that story so she got zero. Anyway… I made the flight to Cape Town. She didn’t show at the airport and I wrote this off as a bad experience.”
He remains convinced this woman is a real person and is scamming other people in her “devious ways”. Chances are she is one of many aliases used by a con artist.
