The corporate venturing fund backed by mobile company Research In Motion has warned fraudulent emails are being sent out in its name.
Examples of the emails have been put on the Blackberry Partners fund’s website and potential fraud victims are being told they have won £620,000 ($1m).
The emails ask for their name, address, nationality, age, occupation and phone/fax of potential victims.
The false communication claims to be in relation to a Blackberry Partners Fund promotion at Sun City Resort in South Africa, and potential victims are told they were chosen to win the money from a random 100,000 email addresses in South Africa. It is claimed the promotion "is the first of its kind and we intend to sensitize the public on the usage of the Blackberry products."
Andy Yang, an investor at Blackberry Partners Fund, said in a statement: "Do not respond to fraudulent emails claiming to be sent on behalf of BlackBerry Partners Fund.We have been advised that some individuals and companies have received e-Mail messages that appear to have come from BlackBerry Partners Fund, purporting to advise the recipient that they are the winner of an eMail draw, as a result of a fictional promotion sponsored by the Blackberry Partners Fund."
Yang added: "Such messages are fraudulent. They were not sent by Blackberry Partners Fund, nor have they been authorized by, or associated in anyway with Blackberry Partners Fund. If you receive such a message, do not respond in any way. You may also wish to report the message to local authorities, then delete the message."