Fox Forensics Unclaimed

We came across these reviews when looking into Wouter de Swardt. Has anyone had any luck getting their money back?! Our experience was the same as others on here. Wouter de Swardt, if thats even his real name, conned us out of a lot of money, promising us a thorough investigation, once he had our money, we never heard from him again, He told us he was professionally accredited, so we thought we were safe. BIG MISTAKE!

Wouter de Swardt is a skelm, a conman and a thief. He should be arrested and jailed. How do such criminals get P.I licenses in the first place!?

I see these reviews, and let me tell you straight—don’t waste your time. I worked with Wouter for about five years, on and off, and the man is as slimy as they come. He’s got connections everywhere—SAPS, Hawks, Netwerk24—you name it. He knows exactly who to phone to make a problem disappear or to get someone stitched up. Doesn’t matter how shady it is, he’ll pull it off and make sure it looks clean. Wouter’s a master manipulator, and when he’s done with you, you’re out—and not just out, sometimes worse. I’ve seen him ruin lives, send people to jail, and destroy anyone in his way. He runs his own game, and anyone trying to take him on is wasting their time. He’s already outplayed SAPS and PSIRA. There are at least two SAPS units I know of where he practically calls the shots. If you take him on, just know you’re taking on the whole rotten system.

Our experience is the same the others. Mr Wouter de Swardt, if thats even his real name, scammed mom out of a lot of money. She just wanted proof of backhand payments being made to a municipal planning dept shje she could stop her shop from being shut down. He claimed he controlled cops, courts, home affairs, newspapers, etc. He showed us Netwerk24 stories he was in, showing off about his contacts there. He said he was big time connected and could get results in a month. But after she paid him, he was like a shist, so we kept chasing him, but nothing. When we said we’d go to the cops, he called us dumb and said no cop would touch him. He told us he could put people in prison with the snap of his fingers if they caused him problems and we must go away. There’s not much about him online except these reviews and some News24 stories. Be warned—he’s a scary dangerous conman.

Had the misfortune of dealing with Mr. de Swardt in 2021. Turns out plenty of others he's left in ruins. A business rival paid him to cook up a fake investigation just convincing enough for his buddies in SAPS and the Hawks to go along with it. They used these shady contacts to get me, my wife, and my brother-in-law arrested, dragged us through the mud for 3 years. Our business nearly collapsed, all over absolute lies. When we had the investigator investigated, what we found was unreal, like something out of a Deon Meyer novel. His whole game seems to be setting up bogus cases so his pals in SAPS, Hawks, can go after whoever his client wants to crush. with his dodgy ties to Netwerk24, police inspectorate, Hawks, he’s completely protected, immune from comeback. We reported everything to the police inspectorate, PI industry regulator, Winde, police minister, you name it. Not one response. Filed charges (three times), and those disappeared (all three times). Unbelievable

This De Swardt was recommended by lawyer who knew him, so we thought it gotta be legit. Swardt gave us his PI license info, showed us news stories he’d been in, couple of client references, and said his Fox Forensics was the best in the Western Cape.. he said ten weeks tops to get it done and we paid half. As soon as he got the money, he was gone. First off he just ignored calls and emails, but when we started saying about courts or police, he got real nasty, threating, and said hes connections with the police, if we tried anyting, he’d have it thrown and we’d regret it big time. coz it would be us in jail not him.

We stumbled across these reviews when trying to track down this Wouter guy. Like the last reviewer we also saw him in News24 articles back in 2022/2023 when we started to look for a PI, so naturally assumed this guy must be legit. He checked out with the PSIRA agency people also, which we assumed is some kind of govt dept that validates professional PIs, and he provided lots of what looked like bone fide references. Great we thought, what can go wrong. Well, everything. He told us to pay half the fees at the start and the other half when he was finished. In total a six figure sum. But once we paid the first half he stopped talking to us and months would go by, he never called us, we had to chase him, and whenever he spoke with us always the excuses about why X or Y hadn’t happened. Its been almost two years now and nothing. And he did the same to a friend we referred back when we thought this guy was SA’s best sleuth. But hes SA’s best con artist. Be careful, be

We saw Mr de Swardt featured in a number of News24 articles, in which he was portrayed as some kind of superhero private investigator, which made is think this guy must be good and professional. He even a Professional Security Industry Regulation badge and number. But he was worse than the criminal we were trying to find. One of my employees had stolen money and disappeared. De Swardt assured us his police contacts and access to various government data bases meant he could easily find him. But after we paid a substantial amount of money to de Swardt he was the one doing the disappearing and we never heard from him again. When we would call he would not answer, he ignored our emails and year later we have not seen a cent of our money back. Be warned, de Swardt is a master of deception. News24 should be ashamed promoting and working with a criminal like this.

A charlatan and a thief … We emailed the Psira organisation several times but they never respond. We have been to our local SAPS twice, they promised to look into it then went quiet. We have even gone to the court for small claims,, and he didn’t even answer the summons they sent him… we contacted Netwerk24 and they were not interested… We got a friend to make an enquiry to see if he was still alive and still operating. Unfortunately, he is and still has his PSIRA badge… What is wrong with our country?

Mr de Swart is a relic from apartheid, and of the worstest kind. A racist, misogynistic, homophobic evil man. We were the victims of one of his illegal and vicious “investigations”. He has ruined us in every way possible, paid to do it, and he is very much appeared to enjoy it. Surrounded by his friends, family and ‘business associates’. All dinosaurs of apartheid, and very dangerous dinosaurs. We pray for justice for our family and that evil men must answers for their actions in this world and in the next

After a couple of months of back and forth questions, we paid Mr de Swardt a 15,000 Rand deposit. Never heard from him again…… We sent a three emails complaining to Private Security Industry Regulation Authority. We never heard back. Appalled . will never hire a PI again.

We have few printable words for Wouter de Swardt, and many that are not printable. Skelm, fraudster, scam artist, criminal, conman, crooked, corrupt, thief, imposter are a few of those that are printable. Mr professional private security professional de Swardt was paid to ruin my sister, and he did so very effectively. When we had him investigated what we found made our blood run cold. He has established a nice little niche for himself with friends at Media24 and possibly Naspers, as well as the police. Don’t be fooled by the professional credentials, smart suits or grey hair.

Mr de Swardt deceived my mother-in-law who is 83 into paying him most of her savings to look for her first daughter who she had had adopted 62 years ago. Now she has lost her financial independence and likely the last chance to be reunited. We don’t have the money to fill the hole this conman has left. Once he was paid, he vanished. When we called him from a different number to say well report him to the police and P.s.i.r.a he just laughed.. saying p.s.i.r.a were “toothless and useless” and the police answered to him, not the other way round. When I said its only a matter of time before he’s arrested he just said “unlikely, and I’ll be dead before anyone has the balls”, gloating that hes had three major surgeries and on borrowed time so take my best shot. We don’t know what to do or who to turn to. Like one reviewer said, what hope if we cannot rely on the police or professional bodies to prosecute the bad apples, especially their own bad apples. We pray every night justice is served

I was sent a link to this review page by a friend scammed by Fox Forensics. It seems there are a lot of us out there. Wouter de Swardt is a skelm. We have been investigating the investigator. He is not a private investigator. He is a criminal whose clients pay him to create falsified investigations to frame people, and pretend the results are from some professional investigation. He carries out illegal evictions for his clients and disguises them as official arrests, he gets his clients opponents removed in the same way, and he got my wife fired “legally” when her bosses tried to destroy her credibility when she sued them for discriminatory practices. Surely you need some form of accreditation to operate as a private investigator? How does this man still have license to practice? Why has he never been prosecuted?

Finally, we have found others who have suffered like us at the hands of this charlatan. No doubt there are many more. Our experience is identical. Everything was great at first, he was smartly dressed, looked/sounded professional, his many promises, told us how his professional qualifications gave us peace of mind, guarantee of professional conduct, showed us his membership of the private security sector association, told us of his contacts in the police, his high ranking family in powerful positions, his access to power & information. Thefees were high and oaid in advance, , He talked a good talk and we made the mistake of trusting him. Once we had paid, the only contact was when we called him, and after a couple of months he stopped answering. He ignored our attorneys letters. The police were not interested. Whatever the real story, this man is worse thana criminal because he masquerades as a bone fide security professional to carry out his crimes

This man robbed us of our savings. We booked him for some PI work in relation to finding our missing niece, which was very important to us and my sister. This man talked a good talk, appeared so helpful and told us of his special connections at SAPS and Hawks. Told us his brother (an ex-officer) could assist in accessing police computers to help in the search. Made so many promises. He asked for the payment in advance, we reluctantly and stupidly agreed. After we paid him the money, which was all we had saved, he vanished and after that he never answered our calls or our emails. Since then we have found out he has done this to lots of people. Be careful of this man, he pretends to be a professional investigator with Psira license which he told us was a guarantee for his services but he is a criminal

My friend Luthabo, who posted a review, directed me to this site as I referred Mr Wouter de Swardt to him. De swardt wsas helpful at first, before we paid him. He seemed professional and we hired him because of his Psira registration and nice website etc However, it didn't take long for us to realise that we weren't receiving the promised progress reports or updates. He had given us a two to three month window for the investigation, and when we asked for our report well beyond that time, he simply stopped returning our calls and emails. We ultimately had to locate a new PI and make another payment. Thankfully, the PI was great this time around; When he did, he was able to verify that Mr. de Swardt had done nothing at all. This Wouter man has a very bad and sinister reputation, including for taking people's money and not doing any work, as well as for being hired to investigate people in order to create evidence about them for clients with highly suspicious motives.

My friend Luthabo, who posted a review, directed me to this site as I referred Mr Wouter de Swardt to him. De swardt wsas helpful at first, before we paid him. He seemed professional and we hired him because of his Psira registration and nice website etc However, it didn't take long for us to realise that we weren't receiving the promised progress reports or updates. He had given us a two to three month window for the investigation, and when we asked for our report well beyond that time, he simply stopped returning our calls and emails. We ultimately had to locate a new PI and make another payment. Thankfully, the PI was great this time around; When he did, he was able to verify that Mr. de Swardt had done nothing at all. This Wouter man has a very bad and sinister reputation, including for taking people's money and not doing any work, as well as for being hired to investigate people in order to create evidence about them for clients with highly suspicious motives.

When looking for information on Fox Forensics or its owner, Wouter de Swardt, I discovered these reviews, which reflect our own experiences. We can’t find a website for him, and unsure even if the Psira membership is genuine/current. However, since having paid him a near six figure sum in advance as requested, we have heard nothing from him. We had to call him and he always had excuses; "investigations take time", "it's not an exact science", "results cannot be guaranteed", But investigation we had requested was simple, and when we realised we’d been deceived and looked into it it turns out he had not done a thing. A year as passed with no contact and our calls are ignored which leaves us in a terrible financial position Our trust in the idea of private investigations has been so badly. What hope is there for people needing genuine professional investigations if the private investigator himself is a criminal

Wouter de Swardt of Fox Forensics took a large amount of money from us to conduct and investigation but as soon as we had paid him, we never heard from him again and despite our best attempts to get our money back he refused to return our calls or emails. When we involved the police they were very helpful at first but then we heard nothing. When we hounded them for a response the officer investigating although it was not the first complaint about Mr de Swardt and Fox Forensics business practices and methods he said he could not help as Mr de Swardt was too connected with friends in the police service he ws "untouchable"

Please remove these people from your listing, they are skelms.

What a poor excuse for a company. They don't return calls after you part with your money. If it didn't cost so much to sue them i would. Shocking

Don't bother with these clowns. The phones are never answered, emails are not responded to and their website has been "under construction" for months. What a waste of money.

I can sum these guys up in one word: Untrustworthy!

A very poor experience. I guess what they say about investigator companies is true. They take your money and laugh in your face afterwards.