Australia’s richest woman Gina Rinehart victim to email scam

Australia’s richest woman is ready to share her wealth with the masses — at least according to a dodgy scam email currently doing the rounds.

The scam email purporting to be from mining magnate Gina Rinehart has been sent out to a number of Australians and claims the West Australian is offering AU$1 million to 10 lucky recipients in a show of charitable giving.

A Reddit user raised the alarm on Wednesday, posting an example of the poorly written email to the discussion website.

“My name is Gina Rinehart, Australian magnate as part of my promise on my birthday wish on 9 February, 2018,” the email reads. “I promise to give out $1,000,000 to ten persons before the end of the year. I am here to redeem my vow and you are luckily enlisted as one of the 10 persons listed to receive this amount.”

The message then asks for personal details, including an address and phone number from the email recipient.

This isn’t the first time Rinehart, who built her wealth mining Australia’s vast mineral resources, has been the victim of an email scam. In 2015, Rinehart’s company Hancock Prospecting, which was founded by her late father Lang Hancock, warned that it had been made aware of several email scams claiming to be from the mining magnate.

“The message is not from Mrs Rinehart who is in no way associated with the scam charity or the scam scheme. The scam is designed to fraudulently induce you to transfer money to persons associated with the scam,” the company’s message said, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

And in 2012, Rinehart was named in another cruel email scam as a “widow with a weight problem and a persecution complex” wanting to offer citizens millions of dollars for charity.

“I am writing this mail to you with heavy sorrow in my heart,” the message read.

“I am a 58-year-old widow with a weight problem, a persecution complex and I am contacting you because I don’t have any other option than to tell you as I know I won’t survive for long.

“I was touched to open up to you about my project is worth ($200,000,000.00) Two Hundred Million Dollars which I intend to use for CHARITY.”

Rinehart, who is estimated to be worth over $12 billion, has been legitimately involved with several charitable causes, including a $1 million donation to a charity assisting the victims of abuse in Cambodia.

Have you fallen victim to an email scam before? Have you received this hoax email?