Congratulations! You have been fooled
People still are falling victim to sms scams. Make sure you are not one of them.
When something sounds too good to be true, it usually is and sadly there still are people who fall victim to the too-good-to-be-true good news.
A company most definitely would provide a true winner with an office (landline) number and the full name (name and surname) of the person to contact.
When a NEWS reporter received a text message for the umpteenth time, notifying him that he had won R500 000, this time in the Airtel Mobile Promotion, he decided to bring this sms scam to the attention of readers as people often provide the scam artist with valuable information to gain access to their hard-earned money, hoping that such sms notifications are real.
The sms received reads as follows: “CONGRATULATIONS! You have won R500 000 in the AIRTEL MOBILE PROMOTION. Ref no: A019P. Contact Mr Rom on: 071 432 2659 or 081 884 2997 (airtelclaim1@live.com) for claim.”
Firstly Airtel is a an Indian telecommunications company operating as a subsidiary in 17 African countries of which South Africa is not part of – that already indicates that it is a scam.
Another identifier of a scam is that the number from which the sms was received is a normal cellphone number and the numbers that should be called to claim a prize also are mobile numbers. A company most definitely would provide a true winner with an office (landline) number and the full name (name and surname) of the person to contact. Furthermore, if you have entered a competition and won they will inform you with a phone call, not send an sms.
Another identifier is the the private email address. The message will pretend that the prize is from a known brand (Airtel in this case is well known in 17 African countries) but the email address included in the sms will be a Yahoo, Gmail or Hotmail address.
The reporter phoned ‘Mr Rom’ who congratulated him and told him in a very flat voice that he had won the money and even offered him two options to choose to get the prize money he had won. These options are via cheque, which could be delivered to your preferred address or via an electronic payment to your bank account.
‘Mr Rom’ told him to sms his details to the number he had phoned, after which he will receive further instructions that most definitely would include paying a fee for releasing the so-called winnings.
Knowing what will follow he decided not to send them his details.
Readers who would like to stay updated with the sms scams can check network operator websites for reports on the latest sms scams and also can inform their network operators.
