Warning for people who want to trick Starlink in South Africa

Scammers claiming to be a company called Dakrel Wireless are advertising devices targeting South Africans desperate to use Starlink’s satellite Internet service.

They claim that these devices can change the GPS location of a Starlink kit so that it appears as if a user is accessing the service from a different country.

South Africans may be interested in such a device because Starlink has not officially launched here. While SpaceX offers roaming subscriptions, these are more expensive and against its terms of service to use in a non-supported country.

However, spoofing the location of a Starlink kit would result in a customer being unable to connect to the Internet via the service.

MyBroadband previously reported on a similar scam operation called “Star Connect,” which gained traction on South African Starlink community groups on Facebook in January 2025.

The scammers used manipulated and AI-generated images to attempt to convince people that they sold Starlink kits and accessories in South Africa.

These included images of staff, offices, and various events in the country.

They also advertised a “Region Switcher Pro” product that they claimed could allow a user to change their kit’s location to a Starlink-supported country.

Unofficial Starlink kit importer IcasaSePush conducted an analysis of some of Star Connect’s activities that suggested it was a scam — including its website registrar having a history with scam sites.

In recent months, several South Africans on the Starlink group have asked about another solution sold by a company called Dakrel Wireless, which uses almost the exact same tactics as Star Connect. 

The operation caught the attention of Wireless Access Providers Assocation (Wapa) chair Paul Colmer, who raised concerns over its Dakrel Access+ product in a LinkedIn post. 

“There are provisions in the Electronic Communications Act in South Africa that prohibit the use of devices that can circumvent hardware or software locks,” Colmer said. 

“There is no way they can get Icasa-type approval on such a device. Added to the fact that Starlink is not licensed in South Africa, they are way up that famous creek with no paddle.”

Colmer also questioned how Starlink would react if it were aware of the device. 

Fortunately, it is very likely that the Dakrel Access+ device does not exist and is simply a re-skinned version of Star Connect’s scam device.

Why hiding your location from Starlink is useless

Even if the Dakrel Access+ or Region Switcher Pro were actual products and did what they claimed, they would render a Starlink kit useless. 

Starlink dishes use phase-shifted array antennas to establish connections with the satellites in orbit, which connect them to the Internet. 

These devices need to know each other’s positions to transmit data.

If a user in South Africa successfully spoofed their GPS location to make it appear as though they were in another country where Starlink has launched — like Kenya or Rwanda — their connection would fail.

That is because Starlink’s fleet would be searching for their dish in an area far from their actual location.

A local unofficial importer of Starlink kits previously told MyBroadband that the maximum distance they could spoof a kit’s location while maintaining an Internet connection was around 50km.

This was likely because the spoofed and actual locations fell within the same “cell.”

Each Starlink cell represents one of multiple beams from a Starlink satellite moving over a particular region at a particular time.

If a “spoofing” location is within the same area as the actual dish, the connection could still work, although not necessarily at optimal speeds.

This solution would only be of value to South Africans with addresses very close to the borders of officially approved neighbouring countries like Botswana, Eswatini, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe.

There may be instances where the cell overlaps into just a small section on either side of the border, and there is no public map of Starlink cells, making it difficult to know for certain where this would work.

It would also require significant technical modifications to the Starlink dish’s GPS components.

Clear signs of a scam site

Aside from promoting a device that is not technically feasible, there are several red flags that suggest Dakrel Wireless’s entire operation is a scam and ordering from the website is a bad idea.

In terms of design and functionality, the online store used to advertise the product was nearly identical to the Star Connect website. 

In addition, the only payment method it supported was Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), like Star Connect.

EFT is typically preferred by scammers opening bank accounts with fraudulent or stolen personal information. That allows them to withdraw the money before a victim realises they were scammed.

Legitimate stores often support a payment facilitator like PayFast to enable customers to transact with their bank cards. Many offer multiple payment methods that require merchant status verification.

While not a surefire way to confirm a website is not engaging in illegal activity, these facilitators have certain vetting processes in place to avoid onboarding unscrupulous operators.

Card payments can also be reversed by a bank, which would be a major headache for fraudsters.

Another typical sign of a fraudulent online store is if it makes no mention of a physical address for an office, warehouse, or collection points — none of which are available on the Dakar Wireless website.

A WHOIS lookup also revealed that the website’s registrant had provided an address in Iceland for their physical location.

A quick Google Streetview search of the address showed it was for an H&M outlet in Reykjavík.

Lastly, the Facebook page for Dakrel Wireless had several suspicious photos — including one claiming to show an event where it had handed over three free Starlink kits to a primary school.

The photos showed several people in front of a strange-looking building with no branding or any signs of children or Starlink kits.

In one photo, a strange artefact that appears to be a loose arm in the air can be seen on one person’s shirt — likely a mistake by an AI image generator they used to create the image.

Raising further suspicion was that the operators of the Dakrel Wireless Facebook page had specifically blocked MyBroadband from viewing their account.

In addition, the journalist who had previously reported on Star Connect was also blocked from the page, while others could access it.

MyBroadband contacted Dakrel Wireless for comment but it did not respond by publication.