Email Fraud Alert received from: Alex
I recently received an email with this subject line: Confirmation of Payout and I am concerned that it could be an attempt at defrauding me. Let me know in the comments section what you think, please.
The full contents of the suspected fraudulent (phishing / scamming) e-mail appear below:
Dear Alex,
This is in connection to an online draw program which your email worn some time past along with other beneficiaries. Over the last year, a total of 33 beneficiaries from the SADC regions were notified. South Africa got 13 beneficiaries, Tanzania got 9 beneficiaries, Namibia got 6, Swaziland got 2 and Botswana got 3 beneficiaries respectively.
We only find out now that your payout of R985, 341.00 was not processed and you were not notified then.
So Bepa international have recovered the entire payout.
I am attaching the claim form for you to complete to enable the department complete the process.
Regards,
Mrs. Sharon Van Vuuren
Compliance Manager
Bepa International
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 117 325 3005
Attention: Mr. Alex Schmidt,
Thank you for contacting Bepa verification department.
Yes, we did receive an audited report for some unprocessed payout for winners of our 2017 random World Wide Web computerized draw. The draw was extracted from over a million companies and individual email address of the people that are active online.
The audit report confirms that more than 11 beneficiaries were not processed. So if you are notified about this payout from Mrs. Sharon Van Vuuren, then you are one of the unprocessed beneficiaries.
Mrs. Sharon Van Vuuren is our Compliance Manager and she should guild you on the processes to claim your prize.
Should you need any further assistance, do not hesitate to contact me or the claim department at: claim@bepa-int.org
Thank you.
Mike Perry
Bepa International
The above email was sent by “Mrs Sharon van Vuuren” from this email address: mrs.sharonvanvuuren@bepa-int.org
I, Alex, have the following thoughts/comments on this suspected fraudulent email message from “Mrs Sharon van Vuuren”:
I suspect this is a scam aimed at identity theft. The claim application form calls for personal information like address, contact details and then requests that a copy of my ID also be provided. No banking details requested. There is a BEPA website and if I go into it there is an email address where autentication can be requested. I mailed them and received the reply as at the end of the first mail. I however still have my doubts about this as it could just be a very well setup scam.
Please let me have your views.