SAFT Employer Relief Fund Approved - Is this a scam ?

SAFT Employer Relief Fund Approved

Dear User
The funds allocated to Standard Bank by the South African Future Trust (SAFT) have been fully allocated to over 22 000 employees of qualifying SMMEs
You have been approved of R156,000.00, Please download attached SAFT-Employer-Relief-Fund-Receipt and follow the screen prompt to Accept your support.
We would like to thank Oppenheimer Generations for making this funding available to aid South African businesses that have been adversely affected by the global pandemic. As one of the six (6) SAFT Partner Banks, we are proud to have played our part in this initiative by supporting more than 22 0000 employees with SAFT loans to the value of around R250 million

Regards

Funeka Montjane
CE: Personal and Business Banking, South Africa




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[AlanJones]

It sounds very scammy to me, but it is difficult to tell for certain without more information.

Firstly, what email address did the email come from and what is the reply-to address? And was it sent to you as a direct recipient or in BCC?

Also, have you applied for or are you expecting to receive any funds?

One big red flag is that the email is addressed to "Dear User" and includes no form of reference number. I would expect that if you have been approved for something, you would receive a personalised email.

Also received this email on our info@ address. It was automatically directed to the Junk folder.

Other than that, it actually looks quite convincing - I suspect it is a very sophisticated phishing attempt. All the information about the South African Future Trust is accurate - and the Trust's allocations are in fact being managed through the major banks in South Africa.

The sender address appears to be [email protected], which is a legitimate and official email address. Funeka Montjane is, in fact, the Chief Executive of Personal & Business Banking at Standard Bank.

We do not bank with Standard Bank, however, so we would have applied for a SAFT grant through our own bank instead - had we, in fact, managed to apply before the date applications were suddenly closed due to the Fund becoming oversubscribed. So those were two big red flags for me.

The other huge red flag is the attachment:

Code: Select allSAFT-Employer-Relief-Fund-Receipt.pdf.html

Obviously not a PDF, then, but the .html file type might be hidden on some PCs/email clients, depending on settings?

[AlanJones]

Thanks for posting fyreflow.

The attachment confirms it is a scam, a phishing attempt as you suspected. It would open as an html page, most likely claiming to be a locked page and asking for email address and password.