A new website, by the name of www.stephaniekohler.co.za has gone viral in South Africa’s Twitter universe. From what initially like someone’s own personal webpage, the person to which the domain name refers, “Stephanie Kohler,” has nothing to do with the website whatsoever, other than being the target of an online attack. Retribution for alleged fraudulent activity would seem to be the reason for the smear campaign.

The front page packs a punch and is written, sarcastically, in the first person. Kicking off with a friendly “Hi There!” under what is understood to be a picture of this person, Stephanie Kohler.

Please note image has been distorted for use on 2oceansvibe
CLICK HERE to see website and full clear picture

The website goes on to detail previous dealings with the website’s subject, Stephanie Kohler, mentioning a number of incidents where clients were misled and allegedly had their money stolen. Apparently the clients (presumably the creators of the website) paid her (Stephanie Kohler) for a trip, but she neglected to pay the money to the hotel they were going to be staying at. This resulted in the clients arriving at their destination with no-one having heard of them.

Research into the website’s WHOIS information reveals the owner (supposed creator of the website) is a gentleman by the name of Saul Kropman.

The website first rose to prominence on Tuesday the 5th of Jan when the web address was tweeted by SA Twitter user @saulkza (that must be Saul).

This was the tweet:

With over 1,000 “followers” on his Twitter account, it wasn’t long before the tweet was “re-tweeted” over and over again, eventually going viral.

Further research into Saul’s other online concerns included the discovery of his blog The Outlet, as well as the massively popular weekly online podcast, The Digital Edge. It is not known if Saul will be using the power of his podcast to further broadcast his reservations about the woman in question.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out, I think you would agree. So head on through to www.stephaniekohler.co.za and decide for yourself. You’ll notice the website goes even further and displays her phone numbers and email addresses, as well as scanned images of all of her company documents, with ID number etc. Combined with accusations including the “issuing of fake airline tickets,” it really is something to behold.

We tried to contact the subject of the attack for comment and she has not returned our emails.

Perhaps you’ve had any similar experiences that you would like to discuss?

They say that there are two sides to every story, so you should feel free to use the comments section below to express yourself. With the World Cup coming to SA in only a few months, any allegations of travel fraud and the like are a concern to all South Africans and should be urgently and fairly discussed, in an open online forum.

God bless.

[thanks frans]