“All of us have a history. If I were guilty, my *ss would have been in jail by now.”

These were reportedly the words of Marloth Park’s alleged ‘swindler’, Larissa Maritz, as she tried to convince all the visitors who had bookings at her Mpofu Sunset Lodge, all for the same dates, that she hadn’t scammed them with the booking.

Lowvelder first exposed what seemed to be Maritz’s numerous scams more than a year ago when she allegedly tricked and conned several people, among other things, out of money.

Christmas Eve turned into a nightmare for at least six families who pitched up at the lodge only to find they all had bookings for the same accommodation and around the same dates. These bookings were made via Maritz on the lodge’s bookings.com page.

Robert Kruger told Lowvelder they had planned a family holiday as his parents-in-law were elderly, and they wanted to gather everyone in one place somewhere, mainly due to him working in the United States most of the time.

This booking for 18 people was made in October. A highly irate Kruger said alarm bells rang early in December 2024 when they realised all was not well with their booking. “At that stage, we had already paid the R24 500 in full, but found out that Maritz, who was then posing as ‘Sarita’, started changing our booking.”

He said Maritz told them she had to move some of the family members to other guest houses.

“I decided to call her from my US phone and said I would like to make a booking at Mpofu Sunset for the same dates as our original booking. She then confirmed over the phone, on messages and even by forwarding an invoice, that my booking was confirmed. All hell broke loose when I pointed out to her that she was actually a scammer. I sent her a copy of an earlier Lowvelder article about her shenanigans, and she had the audacity to deny that it was her and that the photo used with the article wasn’t of her.”

The family decided to drive through to Marloth Park to try and save their holiday, and managed to check in on December 22. On Christmas Eve, chaos erupted at Mpofu Sunset when no fewer than six other families turned up in front of dead man’s door. When Maritz was confronted, she was said to have jumped into her car and fled.

All the families decided to report the matter to the Komatipoort police.

When they arrived, Maritz was standing behind the counter and was trying to convince the complainants and the police that she wasn’t at fault. Eventually, Maritz refunded R4 500 to Kruger for a game drive, which she admitted was never booked. Some of the other families opened criminal cases against Maritz.

According to Kruger, it was a scramble that night to get other accommodation for all the stranded people. “It was f****g nasty what she did to those people. I’ll make sure she’s locked up.”

Kruger, who has taken it upon himself to act as co-ordinator for the complainants, says they are now consolidating all the complaints and criminal cases so that they can ensure further legal action is taken against Maritz. He started a WhatsApp group for the other people who were scammed.

Victims of alleged Maritz Marloth scams share their stories

In one of her many alleged shady dealings, Larissa Maritz caused havoc for a hiring agent in the holiday town when her actions resulted in the booking agent’s bank accounts being frozen.

Nadia Oosthuizen says just after Christmas, she noticed that she could not make any payments from her FNB account. “At first I didn’t really worry about it,” Oosthuizen told Lowvelder.

She eventually realised something was wrong when she attempted to make a payment with her bank card and the transaction was declined. She called FNB numerous times to find out what was wrong.

To her surprise, it was eventually established that her bank accounts had been frozen.

“It was a disaster as I could not transact on my business or personal account. After visiting the bank, I found that my accounts had been frozen after Maritz had called the FNB fraud department and told them I was a scammer and involved in fraudulent transactions.”

Trouble between Oosthuizen and Maritz started just before Christmas when Maritz made several accommodation bookings through Oosthuizen. Instead of making full payments for the bookings, Maritz allegedly only made partial payments. When Oosthuizen confronted her, Maritz then accused her of committing fraud. “She told me in no uncertain terms that she would get her money back from me,” said Oosthuizen.

With the bank’s assistance, it was also established that Maritz had tried to reverse the payments shortly after she had made them to Oosthuizen. This, however, was unsuccessful because Oosthuizen’s account had already been frozen. The bank told Oosthuizen they could not reactivate the accounts, and she first had to report the matter to the police.

On Monday, with a police letter in hand, she once again visited the bank. After spending hours with the bank manager, the security flags against her accounts were removed. “She certainly is a special kind of skelm,” Oosthuizen told Lowvelder.

In the meantime, Oosthuizen has laid criminal charges of fraud and harassment against Maritz. Her complaints will now also form part of a group action driven by Kruger, who was allegedly almost scammed by Maritz on Christmas Eve.

By the time of publishing, Maritz had not replied to questions sent to her.

Dream Marloth Park wedding turns sour

What was meant to be a fairytale wedding turned into a nightmare due to unfulfilled promises. “My wife Brenda shed more tears than laughter during our special day,” said Nico Verreynne from Springs.

All the drama happened in June when Maritz was approached to do the Verreynne wedding arrangements. Right from start, things went haywire when Maritz quoted R40 000 to supply accommodation and catering for 50 guests for two nights. Nico eventually had to fork out R106 000 for the event. “Shortly after she quoted us, she called to say she had made a mistake by only charging for one night. We agreed to pay the new price.”

Then Maritz allegedly told Nico she had underquoted once again by ‘charging out-of-season’ tariffs when the wedding was actually held in season. The service Maritz was paid for was for all the guests’ accommodation, the venue, three-course meals for 50 guests, tables, chairs, the wedding cake, a DJ, a chapel, a pastor, a make-up artist, a hairdresser and a bouncy castle and entertainment area for the kids.

To add insult to injury, Maritz then allegedly contacted Brenda and said she was stuck in Cape Town and wanted to loan R6 000 from her to get back to Marloth Park. “She promised to pay the money back, with interest, as soon as she was back home. We then transferred the money to her. She has not paid that back yet,” says Nico.

When the guests arrived in Marloth Park on June 14, Maritz was apparently nowhere to be found. “She was supposed to hand out the accommodation keys. The guests then had to start searching for the places they were booked in themselves.”

The crisis deepened when the guests arrived at places where no bookings had been made, when beds had to be carried into some of the units so that the guests could have a place to sleep, when others could only sleep at one place for one night, when some places had not even been cleaned when the guests arrived, and when some of the places’ bathrooms did not have hot water.

“When our guests arrived at the wedding venue, one hour before the ceremony, they found the tables had not been set up and they had to help Maritz to do so. The lighting wasn’t right and one of the guests fixed that. There was no table for the children, nor was there a chapel. The pastor wasn’t available and we had to arrange another, and there was no kitchen, so Maritz used one of the guests’ kitchens to prepare food,” Nico said.

When the wedding started, the DJ was apparently of such a poor quality that he didn’t play the right music at the right times. At one stage he allegedly disappeared, only to be found drinking where the food was being prepared. “He was eventually so drunk, we just told him to take his stuff and go. We then made our own music.”

Nico says fortunately, their friends took all the chaos in their stride. “They certainly ensured that our wedding, despite the Maritz disaster, was one that would always be remembered.”

Once home, he insisted that Maritz give a breakdown of all the expenses, but she apparently refused. Things then turned even more ugly when she accused the guests of stealing cutlery.

Nico is now also in the process, among several others in some other cases, of laying criminal charges against Maritz.

Maritz did not respond to any queries Lowvelder sent her.

What now?

At the time of publishing, Kruger said more than 56 incidents, 18 of which had been reported to the SAPS, were forwarded to him.

Complaints can be sent to Kruger on 082 398 1502 or Eileen du Preez on 082 322 9327.

Several questions were sent to Maritz. In response, she denied six families had been stranded on Christmas Eve, and also denied making any double bookings.

She sent a number of proofs of payment to Lowvelder, apparently to show that she had paid some money over to another agent for bookings. This also turned into a disaster when she tried to reverse these payments at one stage.

Follow-up questions were sent to Maritz. All these messages were read, but she did not reply.

In the meantime, Lowvelder established that Maritz and her family have fled Marloth Park and are now allegedly hiding in Pretoria.

Lowvelder offered Maritz the opportunity for a face-to-face meeting. She has not responded to this either.