Somizi Mhlongo is “incredibly angry” and “hurt” after a fan was conned out of his rent money.
The fan was a victim of a sim swap and phishing scam ‘set up’ in the ‘Idols SA’ judges name. Somizi shared the story with Metro FM listeners during his show with DJ Fresh.
The TV personality said: “I never experienced anything like it before. I thought my friends knew me. I’m not the type of person to borrow money, especially over the phone.”
According to Independent Online, Somizi believes the hackers made “a lot of money” out of impersonating him and revealed that a fan lost his rent money to the con artists.
“They made a lot of money because imagine if they had a hundred of my contacts sending them money. One contact that hurt me the most was a friend and a fan who I met last week. He got the message and he deposited his rent money,” he said.
Speaking to TshisaLIVE, Somizi’s manager Thato Matuka said hackers gained control of Somizi’s phone and have been sending messages to contacts asking them to send up to R3,000 via eWallet, because he urgently needed money.
“I got the message and was immediately suspicious. I tried to call him but they (the hackers) must have put the phone down on me,” Thato said.
“They made a lot of money because imagine if they had a hundred of my contacts sending them money. One contact that hurt me the most was a friend and a fan who I met last week. He got the message and he deposited his rent money,” Somizi said.
Somizi is not the first celebrity to fall victim to con artists, Anatii, Kwesta, DJ Shimza and Nasty C were also previously targeted.