Goodbye to millions as Hello Darlings CEO 'vanishes with holiday payments'

Durban couple Faizel and Nasreen Khan were meant to be fine-dining in Italy on Thursday, but instead they are trying to find the travel agent who allegedly took their R50,000 and didn't book their trip.  

The couple, it has emerged, are one of several hundred who are looking for Tasneem Moosa, the CEO of travel agency Hello Darlings who allegedly duped them into buying holiday packages to various countries which she never delivered on.

Moosa has been trending since Monday after people who had her paid hundreds of thousands of rand for international holiday trips were left in the lurch when she went silent and deactivated all her social media accounts, including her website. 

Khan and his wife are just two of hundreds of victims who have opened cases at their local police stations. 

He said they had initially travelled to the Maldives in June last year after booking a one-week holiday through Hello Darlings. 

After their positive experience the couple decided to book another holiday which would have seen them jet-setting to Italy on Thursday for a week. 

“We had last been in contact with her on Monday and enquired about a PCR Covid-19 test and whether we need to get one done. She responded to us but after that she removed herself off the WhatsApp group and that's when we really began to worry.” 

According to Khan once a deposit was paid for a specific holiday package, Moosa would get her team of admin staff to create a WhatsApp group where they would communicate with those travelling. 

Through various interviews, TimesLIVE has established that Moosa mainly communicated on WhatsApp. 

She had a team of about four or five admin staff who would invoice clients who made payments to a company registered to Moosa called The Human Marketing Academy. 

Moosa used social media influencers and bloggers to promote her company. She would pay influencers — specifically on Instagram — to advertise her company on their platforms. 

In some instances she even provided free trips to the Maldives to certain influencers for them to punt Hello Darlings. 

Hundreds of people who say they have been defrauded are coming forward and registering cases at their local police stations.

A Telegram group called Hello Darlings Recovery Group was formed on Monday and already has more than 3,000 members. 

Admins of the group are calling those who may have been duped out of their refunds for failed trips to register cases at their local police stations — in an effort to keep track of all the cases and have the matters centralised and escalated to the Hawks' commercial crimes unit. 

Police didn't immediately respond to queries.

TimesLIVE