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'Spiritual' romance scammer targets retired Verulam woman, steals family heirlooms
Post
|February 04, 2026
RETIREMENT FUNDS
(Pixabay)
A 62-YEAR-OLD retired Verulam woman was manipulated into sending her precious family heirloom jewellery toa man she met on a dating app, who convinced her the items were “possessed by evil spirits”.
Security experts warned this was part of a growing trend of romance scams targeting elderly women.
The woman, who was an employee of the Department of Education and recently separated, said she had sent the jewellery by courier to the man in Cape Town, despite never having met him.
She said she had only spoken to him on WhatsApp for a week.
She said the man told her that he had “spiritual insight”, and through persistent romantic messaging and flattery, he exploited her loneliness and convinced her to courier the jewellery so that he could perform a cleansing ritual.
Prem Balram, spokesperson for Reaction Unit South Africa (Rusa), said the woman went to their offices on Tuesday to report the incident.
“She provided us with her WhatsApp chat records and courier documentation linked to the incident.
This story is from the February 04, 2026 edition of Post.
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