Zimbali holidaymakers fall prey to booking scam
Fake reservation shock for social media expert who paid R9,000 for villa to celebrate mom’s 70th
● Imagine waiting at the gates of the luxurious Zimbali Coastal Estate to check in for a weekend getaway and receiving a text from your “booking agent” apologising that “you’ve been scammed”.
This was the scene that unfolded last weekend for Johannesburg social media expert Yavi Madurai, who had paid R9,000 to rent a swanky five-bedroom villa at the expensive KwaZulu-Natal north coast estate for her mom’s 70th birthday — only to learn that she had been ripped off.
Madurai is among scores of would-be guests who have been scammed after booking and paying for holiday accommodation on the estate only to discover on arrival that their reservation never existed.
Roxanne Sander, reservations manager of Zimbali Homes — which specialises in renting holiday houses at the estate — said the number of guests who had been scammed had increased over the past two years.
“We are contacted either by guests or the Zimbali Welcome Centre on a weekly basis to assist people who have nowhere to stay because of fake bookings.”
But it’s not only Zimbali. Rosemary Anderson, national chair of the Federated Hospitality Association of SA, said scams in the hospitality and tourism industry were a growing trend.
Madurai said a scamster called her after she began exploring a weekend getaway at Zimbali on the internet, including on a website called Alfa Travel.
“I didn’t take the calls because I was out of the country. I don’t remember where the first point of contact was. I don’t remember whether it was on Instagram or Tripadvisor, because I did a few searches,” she said.
“I then received a WhatsApp message about my search for a weekend away at Zimbali. I didn’t connect the dots that Alfa Travel was the same as Zimbali Travel.”
Madurai’s correspondence with the “booking agent” was via WhatsApp and email.
“When we got off the plane on Friday, this person told me he was waiting at the house I had booked on the estate. There was even a message to alert me to the road closure near Zimbali because of the flood damage. It was his way of building trust. I did all of the digital footprinting. There is nothing there that [would] tell you something [was] wrong.
“When we arrived, security did their best to assist, even sending their staff to the address provided after he didn’t answer the phone. I advised him via WhatsApp that the security needed a pin code. He didn’t respond for a while.”
Madurai eventually received a message informing her she had been scammed and there was no accommodation.
“It was my mom’s 70th birthday and we were going to have a small family dinner at the house I rented. I had to find a quick alternative to mark the occasion and fortunately I was able to find last-minute accommodation in Umhlanga.”
Madurai said the scammers would have invested thousands of rands on the search engine optimisation to enable them to appear first when people search for Zimbali accommodation on the internet.
“As a social media expert, this has been a lesson of note.
“The police say they can record my case and give me a case number for administrative compliance. But without actual details, because the information I have is probably fake, it’s potentially a futile exercise.”
Calls and e-mails to Zimbali Travel and Alfa Travel went unanswered.
Sander said: “This is a devastating situation to be in as guests have travelled a long way and spent their savings on a holiday that is fake. We have previously assisted guests who booked with Zimbali Travel, but had no booking forms submitted to the estate for their holiday when they arrived and were turned away. We had to find them an alternative holiday house.
“Zimbali is a luxury destination and prices reflect that … Low prices, especially during peak holiday times, are a huge red flag.”
Zimbali spokesperson Shannon Vermaak said the estate was aware of scams, which were “not unique to Zimbali and the scammers are neither known to, nor have any association with, the estate”.
Anderson said when offerings were advertised at greatly reduced prices, travellers needed to be vigilant.
“Consumers are advised to put more effort into verifying the details of the contacts supplied — to verify it is a legitimate business and you are dealing with the company it claims to be,” she said.
“It is a pity criminals are using our industry as another way of stealing hardearned money from honest people. It is detrimental to our industry’s reputation and we hope that the police and courts will address complaints with vigour and prosecute the fraudsters, so would-be criminals are deterred,” she said.
The police did not respond to a request for comment.
Consumer expert Wendy Knowler said: “Fraudsters have their own sites or clones of legitimate booking accommodation sites. There will always have red flags. The grammar will be off, the logos or pictures might be a bit blurry. My advice to anybody who is paying money to a stranger who has presented themselves online is to phone the owners of the property to check details. Always check the legitimacy of bank accounts. If it’s a business with a Capitec account, that can’t be, because that bank does not have business accounts.”
I did all of the digital footprinting. There is nothing there that [would] tell you something [was] wrong.
Yavi Madurai
Scam victim