Image Courtesy: Namibia Fact Check
It’s a version of the old email scam about money left behind by a distant unknown relative in another country.
The scams just keep coming via WhatsApp at the moment and the latest one landed in Namibia Fact Check’s feed on 9 June 2022.
The WhatsApp message simply reads:
“Hi Dear, This message may come to you as a surprise, considering we haven’t had any previous contact. Well, i write to let you know about FUNDS/ESTATE left behind by your family relation. For more and full information’s Contact me on: barrbertgetson@statetreasury.org
Bert Getson”
It, of course, has all the marks and signs of a hoax or scam message:
- Spelling and grammar mistakes;
- Bad sentence construction;
- A lack of official identifying features;
- A personal appeal;
- A vague enough message to make anyone think, and some to respond;
- An official looking, but not real, email address.
As with so many of the scams that have come to Namibia Fact Check recently, this one also came via a South African mobile phone number.
Be warned, as with all such messages, the aim is to get the unsuspecting and gullible to respond to the message and give up all sorts of personal information through prolonged engagement with whomever is on the other end of the correspondence or number. Another aim is to fleece or defraud the unsuspecting victim of money in order to facilitate the paying over of the “FUNDS/ESTATE left behind by your family relation”.
Namibians are cautioned not to respond to such messages and to rather block such numbers immediately.
Those who receive such scam messages are also encouraged to try and warn as many others among their contacts and in their WhatsApp networks of the scam message and the dangers of such scams.