AFRICA! Bucket List nears... September.

[Sytes]

What’s next, Kudu?

Working on an impala. I'm priced out of kudu. That said, the chef made Terry and I kudu steak and it was beyond amazing! One of the best tasting steaks I've ever experienced!
My final objective tallied as:
Blesbuck
Bushbuck
Impala
Intent was for each bleached / shipped.

 

[Sytes]

Final day: Currently private tour setup by Lauren of LJ Safaris. Kariega Game Reserve. Never thought I'd be 20' from two brother lions! Hah! Final hunt this afternoon.

 

[Salmonchaser]

Good luck this afternoon. Africa is amazing.

 

[Sytes]

As a band once started their song, "Now, here's a little story I've got to tell..."
In Port Elizabeth for great white shark dive. The company I planned to route with advised they've seen very few great whites and have suspended their dives until it picks up.
Desperate to make my three days count, I routed through numerous websites (I have bit defender for VPN and anti-virus) spoke with several people and viewed various flights, car rentals, etc...

What I'm getting at, I viewed massive amounts of websites.

Then... The punch was thrown! WhatsApp dings and I view the message. Basically, <My name> and a screen picture of my Facebook cover page.
"Pay R5,000 (only $280 USD) or I will destroy your life. We will send this, (a series of my name inserted - fictitious conversations that extend beyond imagination!) to every contact you have if you do not pay within one hour".
They wanted R5,000 credit to a store sent to a WhatsApp number.
Side note... I never used WhatsApp until that day as some tour companies needed it for conversation.
The person kept a countdown going, "You going to pay or am I going to destroy your life?"
I kept responding, "I'm old and don't know how to do this stuff. I need more time."
I began reading up how to delete/deactivate my FB account, and remove all followers and those I was following on Instagram. Apparently, in my haste to deactivate, I now need to wait 7 days before I can try deactivating Instagram, thus I removed all followers/ing connected to the Instagram.
"I'm a few minutes from destroying your life, I've not received the store credit."
As I'm working to delete accounts/remove contacts and in contact w/ South African Police Services Extortion unit (basically a hotline) sharing with them the situation;
I responded with the same... "You're talking to an old guy, like I said, I need more time to figure how to do what you're asking. Tell ya, you release anything I have no reason not to share your # and information with the SAPS. Your choice..."

"I will make what your friends and family see much worse if you contact them! It's South Africa! They don't care anyway!".
Finally:
I completed deleting/deactivating everything. My final action was to delete whatsApp as the app produced my entire contact list. To make more time, and ensure the SAPS extortion hotline had everything I can share, I told him/her/them, I think I have it in the works. You should receive it soon.
Then uninstalled and removed all memory of WhatsApp and some other app to dial w/o creating contacts on WhatsApp.

What a cluster! It appears the extortion operation failed and likely had several others on the hook who they continued to work on.

I figure one of the tour or travel sites I quickly routed through while searching for options was a recently created scam site or an employee passed information that collected my name, address, etc

Thankfully my Google encryption of my credit card account protected that from exposure. Tip very valuable to use the Google encryption.
it's the never ending story of cops and robbers. Each building upon the other.

I'll continue later. On a flight w/ 4 hours left to reach Heathrow. Internet's available though slow.

And the moral of the story? Don't use your name for a FB account, be aware of the company your sharing info with, i.e. look at Google reviews. If none, might be a scam start up website.

Wow!

 

[Dave N]

Dang! Glad you got it worked out!

 

[Sytes]

Onward with pics - fun part of threads encore to the private game reserve @Ben Lamb , you would enjoy Kariega Game Reserve!

Opportunity knocked at the right time for this video.

 

[kiwi hunter]

Onward with pics - fun part of threads encore to the private game reserve @Ben Lamb , you would enjoy Kariega Game Reserve!

Opportunity knocked at the right time for this video.

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That tick infested bull on top gets my projectile.

 

[chrisenglish01]

there is no place like africa!!!