Cape Town – A 55-year-old man was arrested for an online dating scam while in court for a similar matter.
According to Zinzi Hani, the Western Cape spokesperson for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks), the suspect is alleged to have defrauded a former SAPS senior manager out of R3.3 million.
Hani said the suspect was arrested on charges of fraud and money laundering.
“The 55-year-old suspect was arrested in the Bellville District Court on Wednesday morning while he was appearing on a similar matter,” Hani said.
The suspect found his victim on Facebook and claimed to be a civil engineer from Oslo, Norway.
He is also alleged to have used the tactics of the infamous ‘Tinder Swindler’, Simon Leviev.
“He repeatedly borrowed money from his victim, claiming that his company and his personal life was experiencing ‘difficulties’.
“The complainant lost a total amount of R3.3m,” Hani said.
The suspect is expected to make his first court appearance at the Oudtshoorn Magistrate’s Court on Friday.
This is one of several online dating scams being investigated by the Hawks.
Earlier this year, two women were arrested in Gauteng for swindling a woman out of almost R2m.
From December 2016 to January 2018, the unsuspecting woman met a potential partner on social media who introduced himself as “Mr Allen Grey” and claimed to be a prominent businessman in the Western Cape.
In this scam, the perpetrators claimed that they needed to borrow money because their bank accounts had been hacked.
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