Interior design guru target of identity theft and scams

THE OWNER of a Joburg-based interior design company has allegedly become the target of social media impersonators who pose as her to scam people with the promise of great returns on investments.

Award-winning interior stylist and owner of Task Interior Styling, Mali Langa, has revealed that she is the target of multiple cases of identity theft on social media where impersonators have allegedly used her status and influence to scam unsuspecting victims of their money.

“My life has been threatened, and I am fearful of what might happen,” Langa said yesterday, regarding multiple-fake profiles of her on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

ID theft in social networks refers to accounts that use the name, image or other identifying elements of a person, company or organisation for fraudulent purposes. The businesswoman also alleged that people were using her business contact details from its website to send threats.

“I no longer know where to turn to,” she said.

The social media accounts, seen by The Star, that have been accused of identity theft include a Facebook user who goes by the name Anastasia Zulu. The user’s images on the platform and profile picture are of Langa.

Another alleged identity thief is Twitter user @lethabolesedi13, who joined the platform in August last year and has about 1 400 Twitter followers. The user’s images on Twitter are of Langa and the user even went as far as posting an image of Langa and a child on Mother’s Day this year.

Langa has released several statements on social media trying to spread the word that she would never ask anyone for money via social media.

On June 7, she called out Twitter user @lesedilanga11 and the user subsequently blocked Langa’s official Twitter account. The account no longer existed on Twitter yesterday.