How to spot scams like Donation Campaign Has Been Launched To Support Ukraine
Written by Tomas Meskauskas on
What kind of scam is "Donation Campaign Has Been Launched To Support Ukraine"?
Our team has examined this email and concluded that it is a scam pretending to raise money for Ukrainian families. The email is disguised as a letter from Ukrainian Crisis Media Center. Scammers behind it attempt to trick recipients into transferring cryptocurrency.
More about the "Donation Campaign Has Been Launched To Support Ukraine" email scam
Recently, lots of scammers are exploiting the current situation in Ukraine (Russian invasion of Ukraine). Most of them send emails disguised as letters from legitimate organizations collecting donations for victims of the war in Ukraine. Scammers behind this email are pretending to raise funds to support Ukrainian refugees.
Scammers attempt to trick recipients into transferring Bitcoin, Ethereum, or USDT cryptocurrency to the provided BTC or ETH wallet. We strongly advise you to do research on organizations before donating and not to trust emails like this one. Especially when donations are collected in cryptocurrencies because crypto transactions are irreversible.
| Name | Donation Campaign Has Been Launched To Support Ukraine Email Scam |
| Threat Type | Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud |
| Cyber Criminal Cryptowallet Addresses | bc1q0tj9nn8vjz996vw5ywd0mwc240n8zefuejax52 (BTC), 0x5a6d18e4d29A52cD27fdF21474185aC45A77F56F (ETH) |
| Disguise | Letter from the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center |
| 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. |
| Malware Removal (Windows) | To eliminate possible malware infections, scan your computer with legitimate antivirus software. Our security researchers recommend using Combo Cleaner. |
Email scams in general
Typically, emails of this kind are disguised as official letters from legitimate companies, organizations, or other entities. Scammers behind them seek to extract sensitive information or money. Emails can also be used to deliver malware.
Examples of scams pretending to raise money for Ukraine are "Ukrainian Government Is Embracing Digital Assets Email Scam", "UN Ukraine Humanitarian Organization Email Scam", "Army Of Ukraine Need Your Support Email Scam".
How do spam campaigns infect computers?
Emails used to distribute malware contain malicious attachments or website links. Cybercriminals behind such emails attempt to trick recipients into believing that they have received some invoice, bank statement, purchase order, or another document. Their goal is to trick recipients into downloading and executing a malicious file.
Usually, malware is distributed using JavaScript files, Microsoft Office and PDF documents, executable files, or archive files like ZIP, RAR.
How to avoid installation of malware?
Examine suspicious and irrelevant emails received from unknown addresses before opening files or links presented in them. Use official websites and direct links as sources for downloading files/programs. Do not trust downloads from shady websites, Peer-to-Peer networks, third-party downloaders, etc.
Keep the operating system and installed software up to date. Do not use third-party tools to update or activate any software. It must be achieved using tools provided by the official developers. If you've already opened malicious attachments, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate infiltrated malware.
Text presented in the "Donation Campaign Has Been Launched To Support Ukraine" email letter:
Subject: UKRAINE (A CRY FOR HELP)
Good Day,
A donation campaign has been launched to support Ukraine and also help refugees fleeing the conflict in Ukraine.
We are urging you to please donate to Ukrainians as many people have fled their homes to seek refuge. Help us provide a safe solution for Ukrainian families who have already suffered too much, Shelter, water for those who need it the most in this time of crisis.
The campaign, organized by the humanitarian organization Act for Peace, is hoping to raise some funds to support refugees in the region.
Stand with the people of Ukraine. Now accepting cryptocurrency donations. Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT and NFT, since the banks are not working, kindly save a life, and donate to us through our UCRF (Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund) Wallet below.
BTC- bc1q0tj9nn8vjz996vw5ywd0mwc240n8zefuejax52
ETH- 0x5a6d18e4d29A52cD27fdF21474185aC45A77F56F
Best Regards
A Cry for Help from Ukraine
Ukrainian Crisis Media Center Ukraine,
01001, Kyiv Street Khreshchatyk, 2
#Beautiful Ukraine
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Quick menu:
- What is Donation Campaign Has Been Launched To Support Ukraine fraud?
- 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?
Usually, scammers send the same email to all addresses in their databases. Email scams are not personal. Scammers obtain email addresses when they get leaked after data breaches or in similar ways.
I have sent cryptocurrency to the address presented in such email, can I get my money back?
Crypto transactions are virtually untraceable. Therefore, it is very unlikely that it will be possible to retrieve funds transferred to scammers.
I have opened a malicious file attached to an email, is my computer infected?
It depends on the type of the file. For example, Microsoft Office documents cannot infect computers unless macros commands are enabled. ZIP, RAR, and other archive files cannot cause damage until their contents are extracted and executed. However, if you have opened an executable file, your computer is probably already infected.
Will Combo Cleaner remove malware infections that were present in email attachment?
Yes, Combo Cleaner can detect and remove malware from the operating system (it can find almost all known malware). High-end malware usually hides deep in the system. Therefore, it is required to scan the system using a full scan to detect and eliminate malware of this kind.
Outstanding!
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