Kaspersky warns: Cyber ​​criminals are unscrupulous even in disasters or emergencies

2023-10-21 03:45:16

According to current Kaspersky findings, the Israel-Hamas conflict is being used for donation fraud

[datensicherheit.de, 20.10.2023] Cyber ​​criminals are also often unscrupulous during disasters or emergencies and use them as “bait” to take over fake charity and fundraising campaigns to make profit for yourself. According to its own information, Kaspersky has uncovered a current fraud campaign that is exploiting the current Israel-Hamas conflict: its own experts have recorded an increase in fraudulent emails in English – “in which supposed donations are requested for those affected by the conflict”. The company’s security solutions have so far recognized more than 540 such emails.

Kaspersky experts: Attackers use advanced social engineering techniques

The attackers used advanced techniques in their scam Social-Engineering-Technikento exploit people’s willingness to support and compassion and thus steal donations. “The scammers pose as charities and use emotive language to entice users to click on a fraudulent website link to make a donation.”

The links in the emails then led to one fake website, which provides context to the conflict, shows photos and calls for donations. The fraudsters facilitated money transfers by offering various cryptocurrencies as a payment option, such as “Bitcoin,” “Ethereum,” “Tether,” and “Litecoin.” These fraudulent emails came from different addresses.

Kaspersky experts found other fraudulent websites via “wallet” addresses that claimed to Help for various groups in the conflict region to collect.

Andrey Kovtun, security expert at Kaspersky, comments on the scam

Such fraudulent websites spread quickly, changed their appearance and targeted different groups. Andrey Kovtun, security expert at Kaspersky, comments in his current statement:

“Scammers create multiple text versions of these emails to bypass spam filters. For example, they use different fundraising appeals like ‘We call for your compassion and goodwill’ or ‘We call for your empathy and generosity’ and replace words like ‘help’ with a synonym like ‘support’. They also change links and sender addresses. Users should have one Use a robust cyber security solutionthat protect them from it.”

Kaspersky tips to protect against fraud:

Websites of aid organizations and check all information carefully! Legitimate aid organizations are registered in official databases.
Aid organizations to donate or support if possible contact directly! When donating online, it’s safer to type the organization’s address directly into the URL bar rather than visiting their website through links in emails.
If in doubt, contact organizations that known for humanitarian aid are! Such as the United Nations aid organizations.
It is unlikely that people affected by the crisis will ask for money themselves! Therefore, in the case of transfer requests be particularly careful offered.
Sometimes fake sites are almost identical to the real websites of aid organizations and only differ in the Details to send donations! A warning sign can be spelling or grammatical errors.
When calling for donations on social media platforms Research the organization outside of the platform! Because fraudsters can also be out there.