‘No one can get hold of her’
Breakfast host Refilwe Moloto chats to Tashreeq Amien and attorney Farhana Asmal.
- Would-be travellers from across South Africa have been conned by the CEO of local travel company Hello Darlings
- Hello Darlings is accused of defrauding them of thousands of rands after they paid for their international holidays
- The CEO has done a disappearing act and deactivated all her social media accounts
- Farhana Asmal, an attorney representing several clients, has urged all victims to open cases with the police
A KwaZulu-Natal businesswoman has been accused of swindling hundreds of South African clients who booked their dream holidays through her travel company Hello Darlings.
The travel agency, which relied heavily on influencer marketing on Instagram, promoted five-star stays at luxury destinations but failed to deliver on its promises.
Scores of clients claim they waited months for their refunds but received nothing.
CapeTalk listener Tashreeq Amien says he book a holiday valued at over R40,000 but has yet to get a refund.
Meanwhile, the CEO of Hello Darlings has gone missing and deactivated all her social media accounts.
Attorney Farhana Asmal is representing several clients and has received calls from at least 40 people who fell victim to the scammer.
Amien says he researched Hello Darlings before booking his trip in October last year and found positive reviews and testimonials, including from well-known Instagram influencers.
They were on Instagram posing as a travel agency, advertising packages that were actually very affordable for us… When I asked around about the company, many people, including influencers as well, had said they were legit and highly recommended them.
Tashreeq Amien
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Amien and his wife were meant to travel to Greece this month, however, they cancelled in December.
When he attempted to cancel his trip, he was told to wait 30 working days for a refund. He was given the run around for several weeks and still hasn’t gotten a cent.
When it came closer to the time, there was news circling that the Hello Darlings CEO has gone quiet, they cannot get hold of her. That’s when I saw that the CEO left the group chat, her account was disabled and no one could get ahold of her and it started to set in that this CEO is actually done.
Tashreeq Amien
There was a website, there were Instagram account posts of all the places that the people travelled and many of them were actually good reviews about the company.
Tashreeq Amien
According to Asmal, Hello Darlings was allegedly registered in Dubai.
It’s believed that the company began with a promising start in 2018 but Asmal says things “started going haywire” in November last year with reports of staff resignations and outstanding refunds.
Local Instagram influencers that were involved with promoting Hello Darlings have since distanced themselves from the company.
“With everything that went wrong, there is only one person to blame and that is the CEO of Hello Darlings”, Asmal tells CapeTalk.
“I do not believe that we can hold her family accountable, I do not believe we can hold clients accountable. And as much as influencers promoted her business, I also do not believe that we can hold them accountable because I have been working with influencers who have been scammed with her…they are waiting for refunds as well”, she adds.
The attorney has encouraged all victims to report the matter to their bank and then open a fraud and theft case with the police with supporting documentation.
She just basically disappeared.
Farhana Asmal, attorney
According to sources and according to clients of mine, she was promising to do refunds, she was promising a lot of things and she just didn’t deliver.
Farhana Asmal, attorney
You can’t blame a client in this instance. People tend to trust influencers and influencers in my opinion who promoted her business should have done enough research.
Farhana Asmal, attorney
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