How to spot fake emails like "Azim Premji Philanthropies Foundation-India" scam email

What is the fake "Azim Premji Philanthropies Foundation-India" email?

"Azim Premji Philanthropies Foundation-India" email scam - refers to a spam campaign, distributing deceptive messages that claim recipients have been selected to receive a significant sum of money. The term "spam campaign" defines a mass-scale operation during which thousands of scam emails are sent.

To elaborate on this spam campaign, these messages inform users that they are to receive a monetary grant/donation from a renown philanthropist. This scheme employs the name of Azim Premji, an Indian business magnate, engineer, investor and philanthropist.

Note that these scam emails are in no way associated with Azim Premji or the Azim Premji Foundation. The purpose of the messages is to gain recipients' trust and then abuse it for profit.

More about the "Azim Premji Philanthropies Foundation-India" scam email

The scam emails briefly describe the Azim Premji Foundation (in the messages referred to as "Azim Premji Philanthropies Foundation-India") and the work that it does. Recipients are informed that their emails have been randomly selected and, as such, they are entitled to a grant/donation worth 1 million US dollars.

Should the email address used to contact the recipient be invalid in some manner, users are asked to initiate communication using a valid one and provide the necessary information to receive the money.

To create the impression of legitimacy, the emails contain a link to Azim Premji's Wikipedia page (which now even mentions that the Azim Premji Foundation's name has been used by scammers in spam campaigns) and instruct recipients to use a search engine to find the philanthropist.

None of the information provided in these letters is genuine. Therefore, you are strongly advised against trusting them and the emails must simply be ignored. The exact manner is which spam campaigns are used to generate revenue varies.

They may operate as phishing scams and attempt to extract sensitive information. For example, names, surnames, addresses, telephone numbers, emails, banking account and credit card details, log-in credentials (i.e. usernames and passwords) of various accounts/platforms, and so on.

The data can be revealed by the users themselves and/or inadvertently exposed when entered into phishing websites. Scam emails can also ask recipients to make monetary transactions by claiming them to be donations, fees, and other bogus payments.

To summarize, by trusting scam mail, users can experience system infections, severe privacy issues, financial losses and even identity theft.

Threat Summary:

Name	Azim Premji Philanthropies Foundation-India Email Scam
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud
Fake Claim	Scam emails claim recipients have been chosen to receive a significant sum of money
Disguise	Azim Premji Foundation
Symptoms	Unauthorized online purchases, changed online account passwords, identity theft, illegal access of the computer.
Distribution methods	Deceptive emails, rogue online pop-up ads, search engine poisoning techniques, misspelled domains.
Damage	Loss of sensitive private information, monetary loss, identity theft.
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Examples of phishing emails

"Mail - Quarantined", "Banco Montepio", "Walmart Attempted Delivery", "Message Attachments Were Delayed" and "National UK Lottery" are some examples of other spam campaigns. Deceptive/Scam emails are usually presented as "important", "urgent", "priority" or otherwise intended to alarm recipients or to pique their curiosity.

The messages may even be disguised as mail from legitimate organizations, institutions, companies, service providers and other entities. As well as various scams and phishing, spam campaigns are also used to spread malware (e.g. Trojans, ransomware and other malicious programs).

Due to the relative prevalence of spam mail, you should exercise caution with incoming emails.

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Systems are infected via malicious files, distributed through spam campaigns. These files can be attached to the emails and/or the letters contain download links of such content.

Virulent files can be in a variety of formats (e.g. archives, executables, Microsoft Office and PDF documents, JavaScript, etc.) and when they are opened - the infection chain (i.e. malware download/installation) is triggered. For example, Microsoft Office documents infect systems by executing malicious macro commands.

In Microsoft Office versions released prior to 2010 - this process begins the moment a document is opened. However, newer versions have "Protected View" mode, wherein users are asked to enable macros (i.e. to enable editing/content). Therefore, download/installation of malicious software can only be jumpstarted when macro commands are enabled manually.

How to avoid installation of malware?

To avoid malware spread via spam mail, you are strongly advised against opening suspicious or irrelevant emails, especially those with any attachments or links present within them.

Additionally, use Microsoft Office versions released after 2010. Malicious programs also proliferate through untrusted download channels (e.g. unofficial and free file-hosting sites, Peer-to-Peer sharing networks and other third party downloaders), illegal software activation ("cracking") tools, and fake updaters.

Therefore, only download from official/verified sources and activate and update software with tools/functions provided by legitimate developers.

To ensure device integrity and user privacy, have a reputable anti-virus/anti-spyware suite installed and kept updated. Furthermore, use these programs to run regular system scans and to remove detected/potential threats.

If you have already opened malicious attachments, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate infiltrated malware.

Text presented in the "Azim Premji Philanthropies Foundation-India" scam email message:

Hello,

 

Congratulations from the Azim Premji Philanthropies Foundation-India, where life changing opportunities and cash are given-out on a daily basis! Our foundation/founder has indeed been a great Philanthropist to this generation and is truly committed to "giving while living,". However, We are pleased to inform you that you are one (1) of the lucky people to benefit and receive $1,000,000.00USD from our foundation's ongoing goodwill
project, grant/donations program.

 

Is this message sent to a valid e-mail account? Your email account was randomly selected to receive a cash donation of $1,000,000.00USD from the Philanthropist. If this is a valid e-mail account, then you can contact us directly for comprehensive information.

 

For more details visit ( hxxps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azim_Premji ) or Google Azim Premji. Contact : azimpremfoundation653@gmail.com

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Quick menu:

• What is Azim Premji Philanthropies Foundation-India spam?
• Types of malicious emails.
• How to spot a malicious email?
• What to do if you fell for an email scam?

Types of malicious emails:

Phishing Emails

Most commonly, cybercriminals use deceptive emails to trick Internet users into giving away their sensitive private information, for example, login information for various online services, email accounts, or online banking information.

Such attacks are called phishing. In a phishing attack, cybercriminals usually send an email message with some popular service logo (for example, Microsoft, DHL, Amazon, Netflix), create urgency (wrong shipping address, expired password, etc.), and place a link which they hope their potential victims will click on.

After clicking the link presented in such email message, victims are redirected to a fake website that looks identical or extremely similar to the original one. Victims are then asked to enter their password, credit card details, or some other information that gets stolen by cybercriminals.

Emails with Malicious Attachments

Another popular attack vector is email spam with malicious attachments that infect users' computers with malware. Malicious attachments usually carry trojans that are capable of stealing passwords, banking information, and other sensitive information.

In such attacks, cybercriminals' main goal is to trick their potential victims into opening an infected email attachment. To achieve this goal, email messages usually talk about recently received invoices, faxes, or voice messages.

If a potential victim falls for the lure and opens the attachment, their computers get infected, and cybercriminals can collect a lot of sensitive information.

While it's a more complicated method to steal personal information (spam filters and antivirus programs usually detect such attempts), if successful, cybercriminals can get a much wider array of data and can collect information for a long period of time.

Sextortion Emails

This is a type of phishing. In this case, users receive an email claiming that a cybercriminal could access the webcam of the potential victim and has a video recording of one's masturbation.

To get rid of the video, victims are asked to pay a ransom (usually using Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency). Nevertheless, all of these claims are false - users who receive such emails should ignore and delete them.

How to spot a malicious email?

While cyber criminals try to make their lure emails look trustworthy, here are some things that you should look for when trying to spot a phishing email:

• Check the sender's ("from") email address: Hover your mouse over the "from" address and check if it's legitimate. For example, if you received an email from Microsoft, be sure to check if the email address is @microsoft.com and not something suspicious like @m1crosoft.com, @microsfot.com, @account-security-noreply.com, etc.
• Check for generic greetings: If the greeting in the email is "Dear user", "Dear @youremail.com", "Dear valued customer", this should raise suspiciousness. Most commonly, companies call you by your name. Lack of this information could signal a phishing attempt.
• Check the links in the email: Hover your mouse over the link presented in the email, if the link that appears seems suspicious, don't click it. For example, if you received an email from Microsoft and the link in the email shows that it will go to firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0... you shouldn't trust it. It's best not to click any links in the emails but to visit the company website that sent you the email in the first place.
• Don't blindly trust email attachments: Most commonly, legitimate companies will ask you to log in to their website and to view any documents there; if you received an email with an attachment, it's a good idea to scan it with an antivirus application. Infected email attachments are a common attack vector used by cybercriminals.

To minimise the risk of opening phishing and malicious emails we recommend using Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows. 

Example of a spam email:

What to do if you fell for an email scam?

• If you clicked on a link in a phishing email and entered your password - be sure to change your password as soon as possible. Usually, cybercriminals collect stolen credentials and then sell them to other groups that use them for malicious purposes. If you change your password in a timely manner, there's a chance that criminals won't have enough time to do any damage.
• If you entered your credit card information - contact your bank as soon as possible and explain the situation. There's a good chance that you will need to cancel your compromised credit card and get a new one.
• If you see any signs of identity theft - you should immediately contact the Federal Trade Commission. This institution will collect information about your situation and create a personal recovery plan.
• If you opened a malicious attachment - your computer is probably infected, you should scan it with a reputable antivirus application. For this purpose, we recommend using Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows.
• Help other Internet users - report phishing emails to Anti-Phishing Working Group, FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, National Fraud Information Center and U.S. Department of Justice.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Why did I receive this email?

Most phishing emails are non-targeted. Scammers send the same email to all recipients.

I have provided my personal information when tricked by this email, what should I do?

If you have provided any login information, change all passwords immediately. If you have provided other personal information (e.g., credit card details, ID card information, social security number, etc.), contact the corresponding authorities.

I have downloaded and opened a malicious file attached to an email, is my computer infected?

Not all files malicious files infect computers after opening them. For instance, malicious MS Office documents cannot cause harm until macros commands are enabled. However, executables usually infect computers after they are opened. It depends on the file that was opened.

I have sent cryptocurrency to the address presented in such email, can I get my money back?

It is not possible to reverse crypto transactions.

I have read the email but did not open the attachment, is my computer infected?

It is safe to open emails containing malicious links or files. Computers cannot be infected without opening links or files received via email.

Will Combo Cleaner remove malware infections that were present in email attachment?

Yes, Combo Cleaner will detect and eliminate malware (it can detect almost all known malware). It is required to run a full system scan to remove high-risk malware. Typically, malware of this kind hides deep in the system.

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