SHAUN HIGLEY

[rchetty247]

I am looking for this man who has taken a sum of money from me and has promised to help me with my case at the CCMA. He has, however, dissapeared and does not take my calls and switches his phone off. He does not reply to my messages either. All I want is my money back and I am going to make a huge fuss about it even in the newspapers if he doesn't give me my money back. I wonder if he has done this to anybody else out there? He promises a whole lot of things and by his attitude you can see that he nothing but a mere con-artiste and a thief taking advantage of innocent people. We used to do alot of favours for him like driving him around and taking hime where ever he wanted to go and he also used us for that. PLEASE SHAUN I WANT MY MONEY BACK. I NEED IT FOR MY BABY AS YOU KNOW THAT I AM UNEMPLOYED.

Please help me in locating this man and getting back my money. That is all that I want.

[AndyD]

Sorry to hear about this rchetty247. This is becoming a worrying trend. There's a few in this thread looking for him as well.

[Dave A]

rchetty posted in that thread too

Actually (s)he started a few threads - rchetty is one unhappy chappy, and frankly I don't blame him/her. I had to do a bit of a cleanup, but decided to leave this one for SEO purposes.

One way or another the truth will emerge.

[tec0]

We used to do alot of favours for him like driving him around and taking hime where ever he wanted to go and he also used us for that.

Well did you drop him off at his house? If so get the police explain the situation and then let them go with you to his house and if he is there and he is “healthy” confront him and do what needs to be done.

If he is not healthy or there is something wrong then you know the truth.

That is all I can think off.

[desA]

Mmmhhh... I'm beginning to smell a dead rat here. It seems that a few posters are enquiring about their money.

I really do hope that this man is only ill, & that it is not something more sinister. It would be a shame to find out that he may have used TFSA as his entry-card into a confidence scam. I really hope not.

C'mon Shaun Higley - come out & clear your name.

[murdock]

is the person in the picture the same person? if so surely someone knows where he is...post a picture of him on all the websites that you frequent asking for help to find him because you are concerned for his health...then if it turns out he is a crook them then go back to all the site and tell everyone what he has done...to prevent him from catching other people...the world has become a small place with the internet.

put a pic of him on facebook and see if there are any responses.

[desA]

I took a quick look over some of his previous posts.

If 'Dave A', or one of the site admins could please run a printout of this man's posts over the last, say, 6 months, I believe that a trend may very well emerge.

Confidence tricksters are good story-tellers who prey on victims who are in a desperate position. They will promise the earth, & drop in small one-line catch phrases, to hook into their intended victim. They appear to be totally trustworthy, on the surface.

The two hook lines I noticed were:
1. Cancer, health = I'm harmless, feel sorry for me;
2. CCDA(?), bringing in someone from Nigeria = I'm an expert & can get things done - no problem.

It would be interesting to see what other hook-lines have been used over time. This modus operadii will allow site admins to block this man under future guises...

[rchetty247]

We used to drive him around to places where he wanted to go and not his house.

Yes, he used the same lines with us. I suspected something about him but my husband loves to trust people blindly. He said that he has contacts every where and can assist us with any thing we needed. I asked myself 'If he can do so many things then why does he look so hagged and poor?'

Yes, that photo of him is the same person. It's him. It's hard to trach him down because he uses pity on facebook and gets people to feel sorry for him and provide him with accomodation. They give him accomodation until they find out the type of person he is and then they trow him out and her starts all over again.

I wonder how if this man gets any sleep at night.

[desA]

It looks like a professional con man has been at work.

[tec0]

So it is true then, well I hope he knows that his actions will have consequences. I myself was also fooled and I don’t think I am the only one. Still he plaid the game well... He never disclosed a lot of information only that he was always willing to help.

I am just happy that I am paranoid but now I still have to question his advice... He did more damage that he could ever have imagined. But trust me on this the tables will turn on him. At his age it will be sooner rather than later.

[Dave A]

Hook-lines and warning signs - interesting questions. He certainly covered his tracks pretty well.

For credibility he presented himself as an ex-associate of law firms in Queenstown and Capetown, with a labour relations speciality.
However, he was in Jo'burg because of his need for chemotherapy and was a newb on the internet.
This little combination threw a lot of people off-track, including me.

I took the post rate and eagerness as a dying man on a mission.
I took the lack of mental coherence and legal acuity that displayed from time to time as the effect of the drugs (I've had people close to me on chemo - it isn't funny).
I took the copy-and-paste stuff as been away from home and not having his own work handy.
I took a lot of heart that he was not just an internet profile when he visited Ian.

When I tackled him on the use of other's material, they were supposed to be professional acquaintances who were only too happy that their work was out there doing good. However, he did agree that he really should be referencing the original writer in future as people might think the work as his own and he did so from that point on.

My decision to buy his HR toolkit was made when Anthony mentioned to me in private that he had a chat to Shaun about his legal credentials and he wasn't comfortable with the answers. It was the only way I could think of to test if the guy was for real.

While that ball was rolling, there was one discussion in particular that really got me twitchy - the whole "you must lay criminal charges in terms of the law" angle in the dismissal for theft thread was way off base with ridiculous references. It's also a good example of how folk can still fudge their way through, relying on the human tendency of the reasonably sympathetic to give the benefit of the doubt.

Ultimately he seemed to have a fair grasp of labour law issues, but was seriously weak in other legal aspects - which in hindsight probably was the earliest sign on show that he might not be who he purported to be. Even the most narrow legal specialist has a broader base of knowledge to draw on. By the time the religion came out (my view on business and religion, just for the record) the ball was rolling on my order test and I'd resolved to wait until it became clear he'd failed it.

Next time (hopefully there won't be one) I won't be so slow to report to the members that something appears amiss. Unfortunately the time of year didn't help - too many good reasons available as excuses for the delay.

[tec0]

Well I feel like a bloody idiot because I thought I was learning from the dude! I even made some decisions based on his advice! Well I am in a world of uncertainty but it is not anybody’s fault. The frustrating hard to deal with truth is I have been a total jackass! All the e-mails and stuff... ISH...

Well life goes on but I never ever will forget this lesson.

[Dave A]

I even made some decisions based on his advice! Well I am in a world of uncertainty

I think the genuinely harmful stuff got challenged along the way.

[tec0]

Yes it did! And I am just thankful the truth is out because I was in line hook and sinker. He got me good but there will not be a next time!! That I promise you

[murdock]

this sounds like the same person who caught out a whole lot of people around the country many years ago...he was posing as a bulider...moving from province to province...the catch was he would come in as a real trustworthy person...as honest as you could get...always wanting to help everyone... also used religion as a front...praise the lord and all that type stuff...

how he caught all of us was by gettting myself the plumber...tiler...and the "builder" to quote for a granny flat...what none of us knew was that he wasnt the builder... the builder quoted for the job just like we did...he then had a whole pile of old wooden rafters etc dumped on site...had me chasing the walls etc...he then went to the old lady who was using her entire pension to build the granny flat...he requested a R70 000.00 progress payment...now we talking 15 years ago this was a lot of money...that was the last any of us ever saw of him...lucky for him because in those days...i would have made him disappear if i had found him for what he did...not the fact that he didnt pay me...for stealing that old ladys money...she had to take a bond and lucky for us she still paid all of us...so we didnt loose that poor old lady lost half her lifes investment.