Sign up with GoogleCan anybody confirm if this article is true, the homecomingrevolution website sourced the article from www.eblockwatch.co.za. I however can't seem to find any reference to it on eblock or on the citizen. If its true, how many people were conned?
Sourced from www.eblockwatch.co.za 14/11/2006
What the Citizen Newspaper found out.
By Werner Swart and Paul Kirk
The controversial crime website which had as its stated aim telling the world "the truth" about crime in South Africa is up for sale after being exposed by The Citizen as based on lies.
Today we expose the dealings of the man who calls himself Neil Watson, the founder of the Crime Expo South Africa (Cesa) website, which has come under fire from politicians and big business for its negative portrayal of South Africa and its efforts to discourage tourism and investment.
An investigation by The Citizen shows a link between Watson and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance (GLA) and its head, Juan Uys.
News was rife on Internet domains yesterday The Citizen would publish a story today, and shortly before 4pm yesterday after noon the Cesa team announced it was willing to transfer the website.
"We are willing to stay on in our capacities, but will transfer Cesa to any other person if this will bring an end to the debates regarding Cesa team members," it said.
It confirmed Uys was involved in the Cesa campaign, but denied a link between Uys and Watson.
Watson has been stirring up debate since the website's launch in July, publishing stories of crime on the site he once claimed received more than 75 000 hits a day.
The Citizen investigation led to the initial service provider of the site, MWeb, which confirmed the site was registered on June 27 by a Jaco van der Walt.
Van der Walt provided contact details for an e-mail address, neilwatsonsa@y ahoo.co.uk and a physical address of 37 Strand Street, Cape Town.
This address is also used by the GLA. The GLA was embroiled in the blood donation saga last year when gays were told they could no longer donate blood.
In a statement by the GLA at the time, a person calling himself David Baxter gave a physical address - 37 Strand Street.
This is the address supplied when the crime expo website was registered before being moved to a US-based service provider.
Contrary to Watson's earlier claims that his site had been sabotaged, the reason the site failed was due to non payment.
Internet rumours flew over the past week that Watson and Uys/Baxter were the same person.
The Citizen has obtained further proof that Watson, if he is not Uys himself, has definite links with the GLA.
In an e-mail leaked to this newspaper by a person with no ties to the website, Watson told a senior staffer of Cesa last month he would gladly accept cheque donations.
Watson claims in the e-mail that "the Uys guy who is supporting us a lot" would be willing to cash cheques from the UK via his account at Standard Bank.
In the e-mail Watson states:
"Let them make the cheques to JD Uys."
And the founder of eblockwatch, a neighbourhood networking system, circulated an e-mail to his members asking for the real Neil Watson to identify himself.
The letter by eblockwatch's Andr‚ Snyman was met with a scathing article on the Cesa website, accusing Snyman of sexual impropriety.
Snyman laughed off the accusations, telling The Citizen he had previously indicated he wanted to work with Cesa to find solutions to the country's crime problems.
Snyman said despite requests to meet Watson in person, Watson had refused.
Uys, leader of the GLA, was arrested in Pretoria in 1999 for possession of child pornography and prostituting under-aged boys.
This after he registered as a candidate in the local elections.
Uys failed to pay the election registration fee, claiming his house had burned down, allegedly with the deposit money.
In a remarkable similarity, Watson has told numerous people his house burnt down several years ago while he was living in Johannesburg.
The website war between Watson and Pieter Boshoff, who runs a rival website opposing Cesa, has been documented over the past few months with accusations levelled against Boshoff of being a "moffie" (gay), and for his alleged part in a Netherlands-based website for young gay men.
Watson, in a telephone interview with The Citizen in October, admitted he had previously paid someone to hack into Boshoff's website.
Boshoff later confirmed to this newspaper one of his websites had been hacked and the administration section tampered with.
The Citizen has confirmation from the Netherlands-based website that the Pieter Boshoff on their website is not linked to the Boshoff in Cape Town.
While it is not immediately known how much money had been raised through the Cesa website, an IT specialist said it could have raised "bucket loads of money".
Mike Stopforth said the ads on the web page could have been added on a model where the advertiser paid according to every hit the website received.
"People could also send SMS's costing R3, and these text messages were then still moderated."
In the past, Watson was easily accessible and phoned The Citizen regularly to discuss queries.
Yesterday, however, he failed to answer his cellphone and did not reply to e-mails.
Since this newspaper first posted questions to Watson about his identity, a new name started appearing as Cesa co-ordinator, the position previously filled by Watson.
Shaun Thompson had been writing many of the articles, but The Citizen established that Thompson's postings as those of Watson came from the same Internet IP address.
This could be interpreted as Watson and Thompson being the same person.
Thompson shares his name with South African surfing legend Shaun Thompson - the possibility exists the name was chosen for the Cesa Thompson "surfing the net",
because Internet users describe their actions.
Watson previously claimed he was an insurance broker, but inquiries to the Financial Services Board (FSB) showed no one by the name of Neil Watson had been registered there, as required by law.
Donations to Cesa are done via MTN banking with an account at Standard Bank.
The account is registered under the same Jaco van der Walt, who provided the 37 Strand Street address when the website registered with MWeb.
Investigation shows that though the Crimexpo-SouthAfrica.org website claims to be compiled in New York City, there is no indication this is the case.
The SA Internet Service Providers' Association showed the website was no longer registered with them from July this year.
But a search of the American Internet Public Interest Registry shows that, while the website stopped using a South African Internet address, they did not appear to move operations to the US.
The American information records the same contact telephone number and post box details as the CESA site had at its inception.
Nowhere on the website are any contact details supplied for their American offices. The only contact number is a single cellphone.
The fax number supplied is one that automatically sends any fax transmitted to an e-mail programme that can be accessed from anywhere in the world.
The fax-to-e-mail programme itself is South Africa-based.
The website carries no details of any VAT registration number and all deposits are to be made into a bank account held in the name of "Jakes (Jaco) van der Walt".
The fact that the deposits are to go into a private bank account would complicate things when it comes to the owners and operators of the site paying taxes at the end of the financial year.
No physical address is provided on the website for offices of Cesa.
The Citizen has checked online records of the Companies and Intellectual Properties Registration Office, and established there are no companies, charities or not-for-profit organisations registered in the name of Jakes van der Walt.
There are also none registered in the name of Neil Watson that are named CrimeExpoSouthAfrica, or which have any details in common with the website.
There are, however, a number of different Neil Watsons listed as company directors.
A source who used to work closely with the annual Gay Pride March told The Citizen it was no secret among the gay community that the GLA was a "one-man show", with its head Juan Uys taking on different personas to fool people into believing there were more than one member.
The GLA gained notoriety by allegedly "declaring war" on the SA National Blood Transfusion Service when it claimed hundreds of its members had donated blood secretly - despite a prohibition on the acceptance of blood from gay men.
werners@citizen.co.za
Sourced from www.eblockwatch.co.za 14/11/2006
What the Citizen Newspaper found out.
By Werner Swart and Paul Kirk
The controversial crime website which had as its stated aim telling the world "the truth" about crime in South Africa is up for sale after being exposed by The Citizen as based on lies.
Today we expose the dealings of the man who calls himself Neil Watson, the founder of the Crime Expo South Africa (Cesa) website, which has come under fire from politicians and big business for its negative portrayal of South Africa and its efforts to discourage tourism and investment.
An investigation by The Citizen shows a link between Watson and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance (GLA) and its head, Juan Uys.
News was rife on Internet domains yesterday The Citizen would publish a story today, and shortly before 4pm yesterday after noon the Cesa team announced it was willing to transfer the website.
"We are willing to stay on in our capacities, but will transfer Cesa to any other person if this will bring an end to the debates regarding Cesa team members," it said.
It confirmed Uys was involved in the Cesa campaign, but denied a link between Uys and Watson.
Watson has been stirring up debate since the website's launch in July, publishing stories of crime on the site he once claimed received more than 75 000 hits a day.
The Citizen investigation led to the initial service provider of the site, MWeb, which confirmed the site was registered on June 27 by a Jaco van der Walt.
Van der Walt provided contact details for an e-mail address, neilwatsonsa@y ahoo.co.uk and a physical address of 37 Strand Street, Cape Town.
This address is also used by the GLA. The GLA was embroiled in the blood donation saga last year when gays were told they could no longer donate blood.
In a statement by the GLA at the time, a person calling himself David Baxter gave a physical address - 37 Strand Street.
This is the address supplied when the crime expo website was registered before being moved to a US-based service provider.
Contrary to Watson's earlier claims that his site had been sabotaged, the reason the site failed was due to non payment.
Internet rumours flew over the past week that Watson and Uys/Baxter were the same person.
The Citizen has obtained further proof that Watson, if he is not Uys himself, has definite links with the GLA.
In an e-mail leaked to this newspaper by a person with no ties to the website, Watson told a senior staffer of Cesa last month he would gladly accept cheque donations.
Watson claims in the e-mail that "the Uys guy who is supporting us a lot" would be willing to cash cheques from the UK via his account at Standard Bank.
In the e-mail Watson states:
"Let them make the cheques to JD Uys."
And the founder of eblockwatch, a neighbourhood networking system, circulated an e-mail to his members asking for the real Neil Watson to identify himself.
The letter by eblockwatch's Andr‚ Snyman was met with a scathing article on the Cesa website, accusing Snyman of sexual impropriety.
Snyman laughed off the accusations, telling The Citizen he had previously indicated he wanted to work with Cesa to find solutions to the country's crime problems.
Snyman said despite requests to meet Watson in person, Watson had refused.
Uys, leader of the GLA, was arrested in Pretoria in 1999 for possession of child pornography and prostituting under-aged boys.
This after he registered as a candidate in the local elections.
Uys failed to pay the election registration fee, claiming his house had burned down, allegedly with the deposit money.
In a remarkable similarity, Watson has told numerous people his house burnt down several years ago while he was living in Johannesburg.
The website war between Watson and Pieter Boshoff, who runs a rival website opposing Cesa, has been documented over the past few months with accusations levelled against Boshoff of being a "moffie" (gay), and for his alleged part in a Netherlands-based website for young gay men.
Watson, in a telephone interview with The Citizen in October, admitted he had previously paid someone to hack into Boshoff's website.
Boshoff later confirmed to this newspaper one of his websites had been hacked and the administration section tampered with.
The Citizen has confirmation from the Netherlands-based website that the Pieter Boshoff on their website is not linked to the Boshoff in Cape Town.
While it is not immediately known how much money had been raised through the Cesa website, an IT specialist said it could have raised "bucket loads of money".
Mike Stopforth said the ads on the web page could have been added on a model where the advertiser paid according to every hit the website received.
"People could also send SMS's costing R3, and these text messages were then still moderated."
In the past, Watson was easily accessible and phoned The Citizen regularly to discuss queries.
Yesterday, however, he failed to answer his cellphone and did not reply to e-mails.
Since this newspaper first posted questions to Watson about his identity, a new name started appearing as Cesa co-ordinator, the position previously filled by Watson.
Shaun Thompson had been writing many of the articles, but The Citizen established that Thompson's postings as those of Watson came from the same Internet IP address.
This could be interpreted as Watson and Thompson being the same person.
Thompson shares his name with South African surfing legend Shaun Thompson - the possibility exists the name was chosen for the Cesa Thompson "surfing the net",
because Internet users describe their actions.
Watson previously claimed he was an insurance broker, but inquiries to the Financial Services Board (FSB) showed no one by the name of Neil Watson had been registered there, as required by law.
Donations to Cesa are done via MTN banking with an account at Standard Bank.
The account is registered under the same Jaco van der Walt, who provided the 37 Strand Street address when the website registered with MWeb.
Investigation shows that though the Crimexpo-SouthAfrica.org website claims to be compiled in New York City, there is no indication this is the case.
The SA Internet Service Providers' Association showed the website was no longer registered with them from July this year.
But a search of the American Internet Public Interest Registry shows that, while the website stopped using a South African Internet address, they did not appear to move operations to the US.
The American information records the same contact telephone number and post box details as the CESA site had at its inception.
Nowhere on the website are any contact details supplied for their American offices. The only contact number is a single cellphone.
The fax number supplied is one that automatically sends any fax transmitted to an e-mail programme that can be accessed from anywhere in the world.
The fax-to-e-mail programme itself is South Africa-based.
The website carries no details of any VAT registration number and all deposits are to be made into a bank account held in the name of "Jakes (Jaco) van der Walt".
The fact that the deposits are to go into a private bank account would complicate things when it comes to the owners and operators of the site paying taxes at the end of the financial year.
No physical address is provided on the website for offices of Cesa.
The Citizen has checked online records of the Companies and Intellectual Properties Registration Office, and established there are no companies, charities or not-for-profit organisations registered in the name of Jakes van der Walt.
There are also none registered in the name of Neil Watson that are named CrimeExpoSouthAfrica, or which have any details in common with the website.
There are, however, a number of different Neil Watsons listed as company directors.
A source who used to work closely with the annual Gay Pride March told The Citizen it was no secret among the gay community that the GLA was a "one-man show", with its head Juan Uys taking on different personas to fool people into believing there were more than one member.
The GLA gained notoriety by allegedly "declaring war" on the SA National Blood Transfusion Service when it claimed hundreds of its members had donated blood secretly - despite a prohibition on the acceptance of blood from gay men.
werners@citizen.co.za
