South Africans are warned not to buy into e-mails bearing news of a prize that is “too good to be true”, sent under the facade of originating from the Ministry of Finance.
The Finance Ministry released the warning over the weekend, following a bout of fraudulent claims that aim to “con South Africans to part with their hard-earned money” doing the rounds via e-mail recently.
The statement by chief director of communications at the National Treasury, Jabulani Sikhakhane, says the minister of finance Pravin Gordhan and the Financial Intelligence Centre's (FIC) names are being used in a scam that aims to get bank account and other personal information out of addressees.
“The e-mail advises that you have won a prize, even though you are not aware of having entered any competition run by the prize promoters.” Sikhakhane suggests recipients of such a mail, which is likely to bear what looks like the FIC, or other superficially legitimate financial institution's logo, check the wording of the letter. “You may notice spelling errors and exaggerations, which should alert you...”
fraud in which the victim is defrauded for monetary gain. “The FIC neither requires payments from anyone for its services, nor does it pay out funds to anyone. Origins of these scam notices and how individuals are targeted is continuously being evolved by criminals, and is an international phenomenon.
“Should members of the public receive a communication purporting to be from the FIC (or any other government department) that refers to payments to be made or to be received, it is clearly a scam and they should not respond to it. Rather, they should report such communication at their nearest police station.”
Covetous culture
Sikhakhane says scams of this nature will only work “to the extent that South Africans have an unquenchable thirst for easy wealth”.
He says SA needs to continue the struggle to free the country from “tendencies of selfish individualism and short-termism”, adding that South Africans who are persistently looking for opportunities to make easy money become easy prey for scams.
“There is no easy walk to wealth.”
Examples of the scam e-mails that have been brought to the FIC's attention confirm Sikhakhane's statement in that they are unprofessional in appearance and poorly constructed.
The ministry urges South Africans to report scams - or any suspicion of such - to their nearest police station.
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