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Man loses R119k in Coca-Cola phishing scam

Johannesburg - A Western Cape man has lost R119 000 after falling victim to an email and text message scam that tells consumers they’ve won money in a UK Coca-Cola lottery draw.

This is according to PenBev, which distributes Coca-Cola’s products in the Western and Northern Cape.

PenBev is urging consumers to be on the look out for this text message and email scam and to notify authorities or Coca-Cola South Africa’s consumer affairs department.

“There have been reports recently of fraudulent emails to consumers notifying them they have won money in a UK Coca-Cola lottery. One such case that is currently being investigated is a Western Cape man who lost over R119 000 as a result of the scam,” said PenBev in a press statement.

“Coca-Cola is not associated with SMS’s or emails requesting personal information such as bank accounts and ID numbers from consumers for purposes of redeeming prizes. We would like to urge everyone not to give out their personal details when approached to do so but instead contact our call centre and report these fraudulent requests,” added the company.

PenBev further said that Coca-Cola does run legitimate promotions during the year in which the two companies contact their winners telephonically to notify them of their winnings, and not via SMS or email.

PenBev also said in a statement that neither it nor Coca-Cola “would never ask for any fees to be paid for winners to receive the prize, such as legal fees, admin fees, clearance fees, delivery fees, packaging fees etc. as this is given free of charge”.

“If customers haven’t entered a competition, then Coca-Cola would not contact them,” read the statement from PenBev.

Warnings over the Coca-Cola scam in South Africa come as cyber crime is on the rise in the country.

Just in the corporate space alone, it is estimated that SA business lost R5.8bn to cyber criminals in 2014, according to underwriter Candice Sutherland.

Sutherland also said that around 974 million company records were lost or stolen in 2014 - an estimated 31 records every second - perpetrated mainly by disgruntled employees.

Have you had encounters with the Coca-Cola SMS or email phishing scam? Tell us by clicking here.

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