Exposé on Lazola Zanele Hartland - Facebook Con Woman

As we all know, social networks nowadays are more than just vehicles to connect with friends. The Twitters and Facebooks of this world have been piggy backed by media, celebrities, businesses and other brands, utilising them as an effective marketing tool to reach thousands, if not millions at the click of a button. Unfortunately, some people in turn piggy back the online profiles of these celebrities to further their own criminal agenda. I speak here with a particular name in mind, a South African female con-artist who goes by the Facebook name of Lazola Zanele Hartland.

About three weeks ago, one of South Africa's most popular television and radio presenters, a lady whose on stage name is synonymous with the letter "B" and and "Bees," the insects; put up a status update about a promotional event that she would soon be involved in. As is the norm, such updates go viral and elicit dozens of responses within a few minutes. Some of these responses are actually ambush marketing tactics whereby people take advantage of the many followers responding to the status update to post links to their own sites and blogs, or to sell merchandise. While this might not be entirely ethical, I have no qualms about that, seeing as the celebrity is also gaining mileage from the followers of that page. What irks me is when people post deceptive information that is meant to swindle unsuspecting victims out of their money. This is what this Lazola character did. She posted a comment that read:

Lazola Zanele Hartland dial *code*code*phone number*code# ...... they giving away AIRTIME, do it NOW!!!! (MTN)

27 minutes ago · Like ·  1 person

I have deliberately excluded the digits of the codes, so as not to give ammunition to other online thieves out there, but the fact of the matter is that by punching in those digits, one would actually be transferring their airtime to her phone! In the most polite words that I could master, I sent a message to her inbox to alert her that what she had done was wrong and also criminal. Boy oh boy, in typical spineless and cowardly manner, she responded by sending me a long list of English and Xhosa profanities. This name calling ranged from me being human excrement, to being a smelly fart, all the way to downright xenophobic terminology (probably after viewing my nationality status on my profile). She had the cheek to demand that I buy her airtime instead of telling her off about her crime. At one point, this loony told me not to be holier-than-thou and think that I am better than she is. I was then told to jump off a cliff and hang myself.  My last words were to tell her that I do not think I am better, I AM better!  I wonder though how possible it is to jump off a cliff and hang oneself at the same time!

Some might say this is a non-event and that some lunatics are not worth the time and effort. Think however of the many unsuspecting victims who are technologically and economically disadvantaged, who will fall prey not just to Lazola Zanele Hartland, but to many others like her. We owe it to them to make them aware of such scams and to expose these confidence tricksters that lurk on our social networks. Let me know and let her know what you think of Lazola's activities.

Watch this space mid-week as I name and shame another cyber criminal calling himself Bertin Galliam.
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Update


Our slimy creepy crawly has contacted me via my Facebook profile to gloat further about her evil and criminal deeds.This is what she had to say.

 Between You and Lazola Zanele Hartland

Lazola Zanele Hartland 10 April at 21:02 Report

Ok dude y r u soo obsessed with me u r actually amusing get over yourself. As if u writting a blog abt me changes anything, guess wat nuthing's changed *suprise* lol

Sent via Facebook Mobile

 If you have not shared this post already, please do so, name and shame and stop her evil game. She might think we are obsessed about her, but the truth is we are incapacitating criminals like her. Maybe she needs to feel the heat of the long arm of the law?