The Department of Tourism has warned of fraudsters who impersonate tourism minister Tokozile Xasa to swindle money out of companies and the public.

“A member of the company/public receives an email…claiming to be…from the Minister of Tourism‚ Ms Tokozile Xasa.

 “The organisations are then lured with promises to participate in $50 billion allocated by the BRICS bank for Smallholder Agriculture Development Project.

 “Furthermore the recipients of these emails are required to express their interest by providing information in order to be added on the fictitious Minister beneficiary list to access US$1 million (R13 million) for job opportunities‚” a statement from the department reads.

“The following domain has so far been associated with this scam (although there may be others): Tokozilexasa@alumni.com.”

The department says the domain is fake and not linked to the minister of tourism.

“Any communication using these domains should be treated with suspicion and reported to the nearest law enforcement agencies.

“The Ministry condemns such illegal activities and calls on all members of the public and service providers to be on alert for these criminals and to verify the legitimacy of information received from the office of the ministry…‚” said the department.

One of the fake emails reads:

“Dear

Great connection with you presently have a great opportunity at ground if you can manage it send me a message to my private email address Tokozilexasa@alumni.com‚ so I can give you more details for the proposal

Regards‚

Minister

Tokozile”