A WEST Australian woman who went to South
Africa to find love has been found dead in her rented villa in a
suspected romance scam.
The body of Jette Jacobs, 67, of Wagin in Western Australia, was found in her rented Johannesburg villa by police on February 9.
Ms Jacobs had travelled from Wagin, about
200km south-east of Perth, on November 22 last year to visit a Nigerian
man she was having a relationship with on the internet.
Her death is being investigated by South African police.
According to WA Police, it is the first such WA death as a consequence of an online scam.
Ms Jacobs, a widow with six grandchildren, went through the deaths of her husband in 2002 and her subsequent partner in 2009.
She then met a man purporting to be
“Jesse Orowo Omokoh” from Nigeria on a dating website and they had
regular contact over a four-year period.
Ms Jacobs had sent at least $80,000 to
Nigeria during this time and met the man known as Jesse during a visit
to Johannesburg in 2010 without incident.
During her last visit, Ms Jacobs was to
meet Jesse for a second time but he said he could not get a visa to join
her immediately.
A letter from Project Sunbird was sent to
Ms Jacobs warning that she may be a victim of fraud, but it arrived
shortly after she had left Australia.
Project Sunbird is a joint operation
between WA Police and Consumer Protection that tracks large amounts of
money being sent from WA to west African countries and attempts to warn
the senders that they could be victims of relationship fraud.
WA Police and Ms Jacobs’ son believe she
may have died in suspicious circumstances, with her money, credit cards,
jewellery, laptop computer and other personal items missing from the
villa.
Detective Senior Constable Robert Martin
from the Major Fraud Squad today said such scams had now revealed
“tragic consequences”.
“We were hoping with our operation we would be able to prevent this from occurring,” he said.
“Unfortunately with Ms Jacobs, she did
receive a letter from our Operation Sunbird team, informing her of the
dangers, however she had departed for South Africa prior to receiving
the letter. Her friend had the letter sitting in the room when I went to
visit – it was sitting on the table.”
Const Martin said detectives had found an
extensive paper trail showing the relationship stemmed back four years,
with a number of emails between the two, including one where Ms Jacobs
tells Jesse she is raising money for him – the money was meant to go to
sick children.
“I am try as you know to raise the money and by the way you are the only one who know this ok,” she wrote.
“I will never tell anybody what I am doing here foe (sic) you ok. That is betwin (sic) you and me ok.”
“Thank you my sweet woman. Yes I know,”
Jesse replied. Const Martin said the task force was now creating a
database of scammers to see if Jesse had more WA victims.
Ms Jacobs’ son, who did not want to be
named, said her friends and family had tried to talk her out of going to
South Africa, but she could not be swayed.
“Mum went over for a couple of months and did not return,” he said.
“So as you can see, one consequence of the internet scammers has taken her life.”
He urged others who find love on the internet to be cautious.
“Don’t go, because at the end of the day,
they are running a business or a scam or what they want to believe it
is, to lure people to go to Africa, and no saying it’s a one-way ticket,
but there’s a possibility it’s a one-way ticket and no return,” he
said.
“If you do meet someone who is truly in love with you, money doesn’t buy it.”
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