Durban - E-mail scams promising recipients millions from Nelson Mandela’s estate are doing the rounds and the Nelson Mandela Foundation and police have warned they should be ignored.
The fake messages come from
an “attorney” and a “grandchild” who claim to have been vested with the authority to execute Madiba’s last will and testament.
The e-mails urge “beneficiaries” to disclose sensitive details such as their address, cell number and occupation.
One of the poorly worded messages, also received by The Mercury, is from a “senior attorney” at Peter S Limo Associates in London.
“The reason you have been contacted with this email to be inform that Late Mr. Nelson Mandela left 15% of his estates in the United Kingdom for you which is total (£3.5million) [almost R60 million]. And 50% of this (£3.5million) is to aids the less privileges in your community while 50% should be for you and your family.”
The Nelson Mandela Foundation said it was aware of another fraudulent e-mail. The foundation urged people not to reply nor to provide personal details to the sender.
Police Ministry spokesman Zweli Mnisi said he was unaware of the Mandela e-mails but urged people to ignore them.
“They (spam messages) become more frequent at this time of the year and our plea is the same… I don’t know if people are naïve or gullible but they still fall for these cases.
“You haven’t even been to the UK but you are winning the lotto there. I mean really?”
The second e-mail is from a “Mrs Sarah Mandela”, who apparently describes herself as Madiba’s granddaughter.
In the e-mail she congratulates the receiver for being one of 10 lucky recipients of $2m.
The Mercury