14 DAY TRIAL // A couple of new 419 scam emails that leverage the death of Nelson Mandela are making the rounds. The bogus notifications purport to come from the former South African president’s granddaughter and the head of the Nelson Mandela Fund.
The scam has been analyzed by experts from Kaspersky. The first email, the one that purports to come from Mandela’s granddaughter, reads something like this:
“Am Mrs Sarah Mandela the Grand Daughter of Mr Nelson Mandela who passed away, before by Grand Dad passed away he instructed the Nelson Mandela Foundation to give out 20,000.000 Million US Dollars out to 10 Unknown individual around the world and not South African, luckily you have been chosen to claim the sum of 2,000,000 Million Dollars.”
The second email appears to be connected to the first one. Its text is similar and it purports to come from the chairman of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
“In loving memory of Nelson Mandela who before he passed away instructed the Nelson Mandela Foundation to give out 20,000.0000 Million US Dollars out to 10 Unknown individual around the world and not just South Africa, luckily you have been chosen to claim the sum of 2,000,000 Million Dollars,” the scam message reads.
Both emails ask recipients to reply to the emails to claim their donation. Potential victims are instructed to provide their name, contact information, gender and age.
Of course, as always, no one ever gets the millions because it’s nothing more than a scam. The Nelson Mandela Foundation is not going to hand out money without a good reason, no matter how generous Mandela might have been.
If you come across such emails, delete them. If you’re a victim, hopefully you haven’t gotten to the part where you start sending the scammers money for all sorts of fees that are allegedly needed to cover the transaction.
