A travel agency called Hello Darlings has scammed thousands of clients in South Africa after promising luxurious holidays across the world.
About 2 500 fed-up clients made a group on Telegram on 8 March. They are doing everything it takes to get their money back from what they thought would be a perfect holiday.
The group of clients has been frantically trying to reach the CEO of the company, but it is becoming apparent that she may have left the country. Many people have opened cases with the police and are waiting for their case numbers. All the contact and company numbers previously used to contact the CEO are going to voice mail.
A woman who used to work for the company spoke to News24 and said that in the past, clients did indeed go on ‘amazing holidays’.
She said: ‘I was assisting her with admin for six months but as an influencer, I was advertising for her for a few years now and there haven’t been any issues all the years. All the trips in the past have gone on as planned.’ The woman chose to stay anonymous.
The woman left the company in January after many clients did not get refunds. She added, ‘There are people in the Maldives right now with accommodation not paid. I was being harassed for people’s money when we are not responsible for their money because all the money went into a private account. People have been harassing us for their money and refunds and we are not liable for that.’
The woman claims that her own family has also been scammed out of money after the CEO just went missing.’My parents, she owes them R68 000 for an America trip in December last year and my aunt was booked for a Dubai trip and she is owed R60 000. My cousin is currently booked for a trip in March and she doesn’t know what is going on with the trip.’
The last traceable number for the CEO was a Dubai cell phone number which is now unreachable and her Instagram account is deleted.
Michael Rentzke, one of the members of the Telegram group, also spoke to News24. He had been saving up for an overseas trip for ten years. He paid Hello Darlings R42 000 in January 2022 for a ‘special’ to Mauritius from 18 to 25 March.
Since booking, he only got a very small amount of information from the travel agency so he decided to follow up ‘more intensively’, after which he was ensured all was in order. It was on 7 March that ‘the time bomb finally exploded’ after another woman who booked on the same trip, messaged to say that the CEO had gone off the grid. Rentzke and his wife were left in ‘utter shock’.
Picture: Getaway gallery
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