She left South Africa and its high crime rate in September and went to start a new life in Dubai. However, model TV and radio personality Sashi Naidoo returned home only to be scammed R500 000 by phone thieves.

THEFT

Sashi took to social media to share her devastation saying the scammers took all her savings and credit card balance. She had attended the nightclub opening of Okio, in Sandton, when thieves snatched her iPhone while getting out of an e-hailing taxi. "On Wednesday, I was MCing an event and as I got out of my Uber and into the parking lot someone ran up to me and grabbed my phone,' she said. "That is what I thought was the end of it. And you know that story?' she said.

EVERYTHING GONE

She managed to get a new SIM card only to realise that her account had been cleaned out. "It's super-inconvenient. You've got to do a sim swap and get a new phone. My phone wasn't insured. Fine. That's really bad luck,' she said. She was shocked to check the following day that her account had been left without funds. "They cleaned out my savings account up to R500,000 on the credit card,' she added. "I had an access bond so they withdrew all the money from my bond and put that into my savings and spent that. As soon as I saw it, I ran to FNB and they did the same on FNB. I recently sold my house. All that money was sitting in my savings,' she said. 

ADVISE

She advised people to be savvy this holiday season as criminals are on high alert. "If your phone does get stolen, there is a way,' she said. "I haven't figured out how they got into my apps without facial recognition and a password. I'm trying to figure that out,' she said. "So phone your banks immediately if your phone is stolen.'