If ‘Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula’ e-mails you for iTunes vouchers, ignore it: Parliament warns of scam

Parliament has warned against a scam using the name of National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to defraud people.

According to parliament, scammers allegedly send an e-mail from a Gmail account purporting to be that of Mapisa-Nqakula and asking victims for their WhatsApp contact details to initiate a conversation.

The profile picture for the WhatsApp account is that of National Council of Provinces chairperson Amos Masondo.

“The modus operandi is that the scammer sends an e-mail from a Gmail account, appearing to be that of the speaker, asking potential victims for their WhatsApp contacts to initiate a conversation. 

“Once the e-mail chat migrates to WhatsApp, the scammer, whose targets thus far have been several staff members of parliament, then requests potential victims to urgently purchase them an iTunes voucher. Anyone who receives such an e-mail is urged to ignore it,” said parliament.

This latest scam adds to a growing number of cons the public have been warned to look out for. 

Previously, police warned of a WhatsApp scam where scammers “hijack” users’ accounts and personal details.

Users receive an SMS from a person claiming they sent a six-digit code by mistake. The person will ask the user to share that code as a matter of urgency.

“Hello, I’m sorry, I sent you a six-digit code by SMS by mistake. Can you transfer it to me? It’s urgent,” reads the text users receive.

A number of users have already fallen for this scam.

Police urged users to keep their WhatsApp accounts safe and enable two-step verification for their accounts.

“If you received an SMS with a six-digit code, you should not share that code with anyone. If you send that code to a scammer, they can log into your WhatsApp account.”

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