Phishing Scams Exploiting Name and Fame of Coca-Cola are Rising

Health24.com reported on 11th June, 2015 quoting a warning of Peninsula Beverage Company (PenBev - local bottler and distributor of The Coca-Cola Company's products in the Western and Northern Cape) as "Phishing scams misusing the name of Coca-Cola are increasing."

PenBev asks consumers to look for short message service (SMS) or scam email notifications from individuals purporting to be from Coca-Cola and informing them that they have won money in raffles.

According to a statement published by timeslive.co.za on 11th June, 2015, Denise Behrens, Public Affairs and Corporate Communications Manager at PenBev, has confirmed that "Recently there have been reports about fraudulent e-mails being sent to consumers informing them that they have won money in a UK Coca-Cola lottery. One such case is being investigated at present is of a Western Cape man who lost more than R119, 000 due to this scam."

Behrens reiterates that Coca-Cola is not associated at all with SMS's or emails asking for personal information like bank accounts and identification numbers from consumers to redeem their prizes.

PenBev and Coca-Cola would never ask for any fees from winners of prizes like admin fees, legal fees, packaging fees, delivery fees etc. because prizes are given free of any charge to winners.

It adds that Coca-Cola would not contact any customer if he/she has not participated in a competition.

Health24. Com published another statement on 11th June, 2015 quoting Behrens as saying "It is important to remember that if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is."

The company is requesting receiver of this scam email to contact ccsainfo@afr.ko.com or contact on telephone no. 086 011 2526 to report about the fraudulent requests.

Unfortunately, V. Ramana, a 25 year old resident of Parawada (Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India) who is a dropout of Class 10, also became a victim of the Coca-Cola Lottery, an international lottery agency, last month after he received a text message informing him that he has won a sum of Rs. 9 crore. He was tricked and began responding through SMS initially. Once the scamsters were convinced that he was a probable victim, they switched to calls. He lost Rs. 1.32 crore altogether.

» SPAMfighter News - 6/19/2015