Mayor’s name used in phishing scam

30 March 2016

It has come to my attention that my name is being used in what appears to be a phishing scam.

Thus far, five separate messages have been reported to my office. Each of the e-mails has been sent from the following e-mail address: [email protected]. The subject line of four of the emails is ‘BRICS Bank funding’.

Please note that this e-mail address does not belong to me.

It would appear that a fake Facebook profile is being used to solicit contact details. Once the e-mail address is received, an e-mail is sent to said address asking whether the recipient would be able to use grant funds worth £450 000 (R9 739 448) from the BRICS bank to ‘explore job opportunities for our citizens’. Once they agree, they are added to a beneficiary list and asked to pay £250 (R5 415) in order to obtain a BRICS non-residential beneficiary form.

This afternoon I met with the South African Police Service (SAPS) to open a case for further investigation.

Members of the public are urged not to respond to e-mails coming from this account. I would also like to make an appeal to residents to forward these e-mails to [email protected] so that we can have record of them and hand them over to the SAPS to assist in their investigation.

Issued by Pierrinne Leukes, Spokesperson for the Executive Mayor, Patricia de Lille, 30 March 2016