⚠️ WARNING: Jonathan Clive Stephenson Advance Fee Scam

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Public service announcement - Solar industry SCAM

This is a public service announcement by victims of Jonathan Clive Stephenson, Wendy Stephenson & Themba Phillip Tsotetsi.

These fraudsters use an Advance Fee Scam where you prepay for goods and services, they then fail to deliver and disappear with the money, leaving victims with a partial delivery or nothing.

🔴 WARNING: Avoid any company associated with the below know scammers:

Jonathan Clive Stephenson (sometimes uses the name Grant Mansell)
RSA ID: 810627 XXXX 08 4
Wendy Stephenson
RSA ID: 710316 XXXX 08 0
Themba Phillip Tsotetsi
RSA ID: 881104 XXXX 08 6

Eskom failure creates demand for Solar PV solutions

Due to corruption and incompetence, the South Africa national grid operator (Eskom) is failing and unable to provide a reliable electrical supply. To address a limited electrical supply, Eskom has:

Implemented daily rotational blackouts to prevent a grid collapse caused by demand exceeding supply, aka Load Shedding.
See MyBoadband Stage 8 Load Shedding warning
See Wikipedia South African energy crisis
Increased tariffs exponentially to recover lost revenue due to illegal connections, theft, corruption, increased staffing, etc.
See PowerOptimal report Eskom tariff increases vs inflation since 1988

These two factors resulted in South African home owners purchasing Solar PV systems to overcome these two issues. Unscrupulous South African scammers have exploited the high consumer demand and set up fake web sites that offer Solar PV products and services. The websites are professionally setup and use fake “stock” photographs of installations, product photographs, reviews, promotions, SOE, etc to attract victims.

Solar Solutions offered

Products offered on sunsmart.co.za solarbay.co.za hellosolar.co.za heatsmart.co.za include:

Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Panels
Grid Tie Inverters
Hybrid Inverters
Lithium Batteries
Installation and commissioning of the equipment
Certified installation (Certificate of Compliance - CoC)

Upfront Deposits & Payments (aka Advance Fee Scam)

Payments are upfront via Credit Card or ETF (Electronic Funds Transfer).
Once they have your payment, they fail to deliver your purchase.
Due to corruption and incompetence within the South African criminal justice system and high costs of litigation most victims are unable to recover their funds.

🔴 AVOID sunsmart.co.za hellosolar.co.za heatsmart.co.za adventureministry.org madrhino.co.za or any company associated with:

Media reports

Social media & media reports related to Jonathan Clive Stephenson, Themba Phillip and Wendy Stephenson:

🔴 AVOID: Sunsmart Solarbay Hellosolar Heatsmart Adventure Ministry Mad Rhino Gear (South Africa)

Detailed information

Jonathan Clive Stephenson and Themba Phillip Tsotetsi have a number of scam companies registered: List of companies registered to Jonathan Clive Stephenson / Themba Phillip Tsotetsi
Jonathan Clive Stephenson has had at least two Sale In Execution of Judgement Orders granted against him: Sale In Execution of Judgement Orders
Detailed analysis of how, why and evolution of the Jonathan Clive Stephenson scam: How the Jonathan Clive Stephenson scam works
Public photos of Jonathan Clive Stephenson from social media: Public photos of Jonathan Clive Stephenson
South Africa Police SAPS cases opened against Jonathan Clive Stephenson: Police cases opened against Jonathan Clive Stephenson
Take action against Jonathan Clive Stephenson: Take action against Jonathan Clive Stephenson

If you have a tip off, suggestions, additional information please send an email to info@hello-solar.co.za