It is not everyday that you wake up to the news that you could have been scammed and by the grace of God or some miracle, you escaped losing thousands of rand.
That is what happened to me this morning. I don’t think I am immune to scamming or phishing but given that I work for a business site and have over 10 years’ experience, I think I can spot a distrustful person or when something is too good to be true.
However, this was not the case with regard to alleged property scammer Darren Russel. I had contacted him on Airbnb in August, 2021 to stay at a luxury villa he was managing, for one night with a few of my mates. I was hosting my best friend’s bachelorette party and wanted to go all out.
I wish I could say that I spotted something fishy about Russel, if that is his real name. But, alas, I did not. Despite doing stories on this very topic I failed to see that Russel was most probably trying to scam me out of about R10 000. That was the price (give or take) for the night at the breathtaking venue “Hove Heaven”, that he was advertising on Airbnb.
When I went back to Airbnb to look at our messages, I was shocked to see that his messages were blocked with this message by Airbnb: “This message has been hidden because the person no longer has access to Airbnb.”
What I can see is that there were major red flags even from my messages. The most jarring was that there was an issue while I was booking the venue with Airbnb. I saw that when I was doing the booking, he had sent me a link to book via Instagram. That link had also failed and I had started to deal with him via WhatsApp to book the venue.
On reflection I can’t believe that I was even entertaining this booking process. It is not lost on me that I was making some silly errors in evaluating this booking process.
I ask myself why, why would I let myself potentially be bamboozled by such an obvious scam. The only answer I can think of is that Russel seemed legitimate, he was also quick to answer and was so accommodating to my needs and requirements. Organising a party during Covid and the subsequent government requirements was not easy, and Russel understood that. He also was offering the villa at such a great discount according to him, that I felt I was scoring or making a huge saving.
Looking back it was clearly too good to be true and I just thank the universe that I booked with a different host.
WHO IS DARREN RUSSEL?
Well it seems that Russel has been doing this very con with numerous victims over a few years in Cape Town, and has finally been arrested.
Russel has been accused of defrauding luxury property owners and tourists on the Atlantic Seaboard for at least two years. It is estimated that the British national made up to R34 million while committing this fraud, according to News24.
It should be noted that Russel has been arrested twice, his first arrest was in 2022 and his second was last week, as more and more victims were coming forward.
Russell faces six criminal and six civil charges.
A PETITION
According to a Change.org petition entitled, “Let’s STOP Darren Russell de Rodez aka La Collection The Holiday SCAMMER”, Russel has a simple modus operandi.
Mario Boffa, the person who started the petition said Russel “takes bookings for properties in Cape Town and then when clients want to take occupation, he doesn’t open up or has double-booked them”.
Boffa writes that “he runs property listings of properties he does not own nor does he have legal agreements to let them on duplicated platforms, using multiple profiles.
Here are a list of the platforms he used:
- Airbnb
- Your.Rentals
- Booking.com
- Agoda
- Expedia
- VRBO
In my interaction with Russel, he was advertising a villa called “Hove Heaven” on Airbnb.
I found that the property is still advertised to rent on a site called, Readytotrip.com.
The travel site has a very limited description, stating: “Some of the units have a satellite flat-screen TV, a fully equipped kitchen with a microwave, and a private bathroom with a hot tub and free toiletries. Situated in Cape Town in the Western Cape region and Beta Beach, reachable within 500 metres, ”Hove Heaven“ features accommodation with free Wi-Fi, BBQ facilities, a garden and free private parking.”
What is interesting is that there are no reviews of prior guests.
This is a developing story…
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