Four women from different towns in Kwazulu Natal have contacted Reaction Unit South Africa (RUSA) over the past week reporting a man identifying himself as a Pilot that had scammed them of thousands of Rands.
The man introduced himself as Ravi Kumar, a single Airline Pilot residing in Los Angeles – California in the USA. He sends out Friend requests to woman on Facebook and during a chat on Facebook Messenger, he asks for a contact number. The women are then contacted on Whatsapp using the number +39 3510164225. The prefix +39 is the International Dialling Code for Italy in Europe.
After chatting to the victims for a few weeks the man requests home addresses so he can send gifts. The women were sent images of a box that contained 15 000 US Dollars (R300 000). The scammer then professes his love, promises to visit South Africa and marry the victims. Later he requests R5000 daily on each occasion explaining that the box packed with gifts and cash were being withheld at Customs, he was stuck at the airport or his bank cards were lost.
The women were collectively scammed out of R97 000.
