Beware of danger that lurks on social media, say experts

Social media experts have warned people to do  their due diligence when answering Facebook posts after 14 Joburg women were raped after being lured by a man who was using the social media platform to promise them jobs.

The 27-year-old man suspected to be behind the 14 rapes appeared at the Protea magistrate's court in Soweto on Tuesday for allegedly creating fake profiles using pictures of women to lure his victims, mostly from Zimbabwe and looking for domestic work opportunities. 

He is expected back in court on August 6 after abandoning his bail application.

Sowetan understands that some of his victims pointed him out during an ID parade on Monday. 

Social media attorney Verli Oosthuizen said using social media to lure victims was an easy way to target vulnerable people, particularly in SA where there is a low employment rate. 

She said users should check how long a profile has been in existence. 

“If someone keeps making new profiles it is more 'dodgy'. If they are longstanding on the platform with lots of reviews, there is more credibility.” 

She said if the profile is new then it should be considered a red flag.

“Unfortunately, there are opportunistic criminals out there, and social media platforms that do not have stringent identification procedures may provide a safe haven for people like that,” said Oosthuizen. 

“If it seems too good to be true, it probably is,” she added.

She also said it was important to meet in public places.

The man, a Zimbabwean national, was arrested on Sunday in the company of his  would-be victims at Bree taxi rank in downtown Johannesburg.

He is facing charges of rape, attempted rape and robbery. He allegedly raped and robbed 14 women and the police have been looking for him since October last year.

The man is alleged to have posed as a woman on social media and promised his victims — who are from his home country — cleaning jobs at his home in Lenasia South.

A police source said the man used several fake accounts on Facebook to lure the victims.

One of his would-be victims told Sowetan that she found out about the job post through a friend who had seen it on Facebook, after desperately seeking employment.

“We didn't know it was a man, we always thought it was a woman looking for domestic workers and we were told someone would come to fetch us in town at Bree taxi rank. 

“We were saved by the fact that one of the taxis got full and we had to wait for another one. So, while waiting, the police came and arrested him,” said the 24-year-old woman. 

“The whole situation was painful. We were scared when the police arrested him,” she said.

The woman said she had been searching for a job for three months and was hopeful she would get a job to feed her six-year-old child.

Sowetan understands that after he was caught, officers went to his home where they found his victims' belongings.

Gauteng police spokesperson Lt-Col Mavela Masondo confirmed the man was arrested by police from Gauteng Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit.

“He (the suspect) would advertise on Facebook as an employment agent for domestic workers and then arrange to meet with the unsuspecting victims at the taxi rank.

“He will then promise the victims that he is taking them to the potential employer. It is reported that while on the way, he would take out a knife and force the victims to a deserted area where he would rape and rob them,” Masondo said.

According to social media expert Emma Sadleir, social media has been a very big present wrapped up in a shiny red bow for all sorts of online predators, scammers and criminals. She said it provides access to people in a very quick, efficient and direct way.

" ... by looking at someone's information online you can often tailor the nature of your criminal act in a way which makes it more acceptable to them.

“People are desperate in SA, the unemployment rate is very high, and people are desperate for jobs and whenever people are desperate they do fall into the hands of these criminals. So, we have really got to remind people, especially when it comes to desperate times, that if it is too good to be true then it usually is.

“So when you are talking to somebody online, have a look at their profile. I always say do a reverse google image search of their profile picture, if they have just stolen somebody else's picture to create a fake account you will find out very quickly. I think that it is important for anybody meeting anybody in the digital age to be skeptical and to be cynical,” Sadleir said.

Using Facebook for nefarious activities has been a trend that has seen perpetrators raping, robbing and even killing their victims over the years.

In 2012, Thabo Bester, known as the “Facebook Rapist”, was given a life sentence for murder after stabbing his girlfriend Nomfundo Tyhulu to death. Before that, Bester had used Facebook to lure young women, raping and robbing them after promising them lucrative modelling jobs.

In 2022, Vusi Donald Bhuda from Mpumalanga was handed four life sentences and an additional 15 years for the crimes he committed on the women he lured to his house after meeting them on Facebook.

He lured them to his house under the pretext that there would be a ceremony and wanted to introduce them as his girlfriends to his family. He raped three and murdered one.

In November last year, Jaco Basson was ambushed and shot dead while trying to view a bakkie that had been advertised on Facebook's Marketplace.

In April this year, brothers Aaron Alberts, 19, and Kyle Alberts, 30, from St Albans in the Eastern Cape responded to an ad for a TV set on Facebook's Marketplace but were lured under false pretenses, robbed and shot to death.

In 2022, serial rapist, Mehlodi Robert Baloyi, 21, was handed two life terms by Polokwane High Court for raping four women he lured on Facebook.

He had used Facebook to advertise tattoos.

Interested customers would contact him on Facebook and he would offer them free tattoos, claiming it will be his marketing strategy.

The victims would agreed to go to his tattoo shop and he would then take them to an abandoned RDP house where he would then rob and rape them.