E-mail Scammers Exploit Name of Nelson Mandela; Trend Micro

According to Trend Micro, online scammers are frequently leveraging Nelson Mandela's name a highly respected personality in South Africa, the first President from the black community, and who recently met with his heavenly abode on December 5, 2013, in their malicious campaigns.

Trend Micro reveals that one sample e-mail scam circulated before Mandela passed away, while another circulated after his demise.

Captioned, "Celebrate with us Nelson Mandela alive!" the first e-mail stated that Uthingo National Lottery South Africa had joined hands with Nelson Mandela Foundation to make merry about Nelson Mandela continuing to live. Recipients were invited to declare their e-mail IDs the same day and become the winner of the November 2013 lottery named Uthingo National E-mail Lottery, the scam e-mail added.

The second e-mail, though exactly same as the first one, had minor changes. It stated that on the current day, South Africa's government and citizens mourned Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela's death the stalwart to be foremost President, elected democratically, as well as a globally recognized icon. A last wish of Mandela was of eradicating global poverty. To fulfill that, ten individuals every year would be awarded with the Nelson Mandela Humanitarian Award on the same day he died.

The e-mail continued that it was informing the recipient he'd been chosen as the award winner in the current inaugural session for the USD 1,000,000 worth prize.

Within both instances, the e-mails solicit probable victims' personal information that must be dispatched to one given e-mail id.

Some end-users may easily get persuaded into disclosing their details, considering Mandela's recognition, spread about his death message as well as the prize award promised.

Meanwhile, Nelson Mandela's name has previously been exploited too in e-mail scams. During January 2013, Nelson Mandela Center of Memory came to know about one donor e-mail fraud, which did the rounds. The e-mail, supposedly from Maeline Engelbrecht, Donor Relations Manager of Nelson Mandela outlined different worldwide fundraising initiatives carried out on behalf of Nelson Mandela Fund followed with urging that e-mail recipient help towards setting up an area funding body where charities deposited into Mandela Fund could be redirected.

» SPAMfighter News - 12/19/2013