A Capetonian woman named Lize Botha is the subject of an intensive manhunt, as more of her victims surface with horrifying stories about how they were swindled out of thousands of rand.
Where in the world is Lize Botha?
The elusive, self-proclaimed travel agent has numerous cases of fraud opened against her by the victims she targeted through a sophisticated raffle scam.
According to a Facebook group launched by Botha’s victims, the self-proclaimed agent lured avid travellers with raffles, where participants purchased tickets for a chance to win a holiday experience, anywhere in the world.
Travel enthusiasts spent thousands of rand at every raffle and Botha, carefully orchestrating the swindle, picked a ‘lucky’ winner every time, selling her victims a fantasy holiday that, in the end, would turn out to be a scam.
One of her victims, a woman identified in the ‘Ardent world travel and tours disgruntled clients’ group as Yolanda Bezuidenhout supposedly won a holiday trip to the United States (US) from the raffle. The accommodation, as it turned out, was booked, but it was not paid for, as promised.
Moreover, Bezuidenhout sent Botha money to contribute towards financing her visa application and flight tickets, however, time passed with no concrete updates from the self-proclaimed travel agent, only excuses that were not accompanied by any proof.
In the end, after months of chasing Botha around, she was refunded. The same, however, cannot be said about more than 50 of Botha’s victims, who’ve lost cash to the elaborate holiday swindle.
The whereabouts of Botha are unknown, at this time. Information sourced by her victims suggests that she, at one point, lived in Ottery, Cape Town, with her parents.
There is a growing suspicion that Lize Botha may be a pseudonym she has used to throw off people who’ve been searching for her online.