Do not trust "Investment Into Building Homes For Orphans" scam emails
Written by Tomas Meskauskas on (updated)
What kind of email is "Investment Into Building Homes For Orphans"?
After inspecting the "Investment Into Building Homes For Orphans" email, we determined that it is spam. The letters belonging to this campaign use a scam model in which the recipients are promised exorbitant amounts of money. This spam mail aims to extract personally identifiable information and may also request victims to make monetary transactions.
"Investment Into Building Homes For Orphans" email scam overview
The email with the subject "URGENT REPLY NEEDED!" (may vary) claims to be from a banker working with the British HSBC bank. The letter tells a tale about a wealthy businessman who had passed away and his cancer-stricken wife. The bed-ridden window wishes to find a "god-fearing person" to receive £7,000,000 GBP and use the funds to help the orphans in their country.
If the recipient is "sincere and honest", the sender states that they will receive the money. The email requests that, if they agree, the recipient must provide the following information – their full name, address, and telephone number.
It must be stressed that this email is fake, as are all its claims. Furthermore, it is in no way associated with HSBC or any other legitimate entities.
This spam mail operates as a phishing scam by attempting to obtain the previously listed information. Scammers can monetize private data by crafting personalized scams, stealing the victims' identities, or selling the information to third-parties.
What is more, spam campaigns like "Investment Into Building Homes For Orphans" often involve monetary transactions. Recipients can be asked to pay "small fees" for the transaction, storage, verification, registration, or due to other bogus reasons.
Cyber criminals can direct victims to dubious payment gateways that operate as phishing scams and record the finance-related data entered into them (e.g., online bank account usernames/passwords, banking account details, credit card numbers, etc.).
Alternatively, the scammers can request for the funds to be transferred using difficult-to-trace methods, such as cryptocurrencies, pre-paid vouchers, gift cards, or cash hidden in innocent-looking packages and shipped. These techniques are employed to minimize the chances of the criminals being persecuted and the victims returning their money.
To summarize, by trusting an email like "Investment Into Building Homes For Orphans" – users can experience system infections, severe privacy issues, financial losses, and identity theft.
If you have disclosed personally-identifiable or finance-related information to scammers – immediately contact the corresponding authorities. And if you believe that your account log-in credentials have been compromised – change the passwords of all potentially exposed accounts and inform their official support without delay.
| Name | "Investment Into Building Homes For Orphans" spam email |
| Threat Type | Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud |
| Fake Claim | Recipient can receive 7 million GBP to help the orphans in their country. |
| 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. |
Similar spam campaign examples
We have analyzed thousands of spam emails; "Jeff Bezos Charity Project", "Dormant Account", "Help My Daughter", and "Abandoned Funds" are just a few examples of ones similar to "Investment Into Building Homes For Orphans".
Deceptive mail is used to facilitate a wide variety of scams and even to distribute trojans, ransomware, and other malware. These letters can be variously disguised and use different scam models to gain and subsequently abuse victims' trust.
Due to how widespread and well-crafted spam mail can be, we strongly recommend exercising caution with incoming emails, PMs/DMs, SMSes, and other messages.
How do spam campaigns infect computers?
Spam emails can contain infectious files as attachments or download links. These files can be in various formats, e.g., archives (ZIP, RAR, etc.), executables (.exe, .run, etc.), PDF and Microsoft Office documents, JavaScript, and so forth.
When such a file is executed, run, or otherwise opened – the infection process is triggered. For example, Microsoft Office documents infect devices by executing malicious macro commands.
How to avoid installation of malware?
We strongly recommend approaching incoming emails and other messages with care. The attachments/links present in suspect mail must not be opened, as they can be malicious and cause infections. It is important to use Microsoft Office versions released after 2010 since they have the "Protected View" mode that prevents automatic execution of macro commands.
However, malware is proliferated using various methods. Therefore, we advise downloading only from official and verified channels. Furthermore, all programs must be activated and updated using legitimate functions/tools, as illegal activation ("cracking") tools and fake updaters can contain malware.
Another recommendation is to be careful when browsing since fraudulent and virulent content usually appears harmless.
We must emphasize the importance of having a reputable anti-virus installed and kept updated. Security software must be used to run regular system scans and to remove detected threats. 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 "Investment Into Building Homes For Orphans" spam email letter:
Subject: URGENT REPLY NEEDED!
Dear Friend,
I am Ms Marlene Dillon, a banker with HSBC United Kingdom. I will be glad to exhibit some good business that deals with huge amounts of money which will be invested into the establishment and building of less privileged homes to help the poor orphans in your jurisdiction. Based on that i have a woman who is bed ridden here in UK whom the late
husband deposited 7 Million Great Britain Pounds which the late husband got from the gold dust business he had supplied with a Singapore and France merchant.
Right now the depositor is late and the wife is bed ridden as she is a breast cancer patient and the doctor informed her last week that she will undergo surgical operation which the result will be 50/50 and base on that, she wants me to look for a God fearing person that will invest it into helping the orphan in your country. Can you be able to
handle this great huge amount of investment? If yes, kindly assure me that you will be sincere and honest throughout this deal and you will be the investor hence am not business oriented and remember this transaction is 100 percent risk free. Can you reconfirm the under listed information below:
Full Name
Full Address
Telephone Number
Thank you!
Ms Marlene Dillon
Another example of an email from "Investment Into Building Homes For Orphans" spam campaign:
Text presented within:
Subject: Funds Danation of USD 30, Million Dollars
Hello dear,My names are Rebecca Lee Zhang, I will like to know if you can help
me handle a project of funds donation to Orphanage Homes worth of
USD 30,000,000.00 ( 30 Million Dollars ). You will get part of the
funds for your services.
Get back to me with your personal email for more details.
Thanks,
Rebecca Lee Zhang
Instant automatic malware removal:
Manual threat removal might be a lengthy and complicated process that requires advanced IT skills. Combo Cleaner is a professional automatic malware removal tool that is recommended to get rid of malware. Download it by clicking the button below:
▼ DOWNLOAD Combo Cleaner
By downloading any software listed on this website you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. To use full-featured product, you have to purchase a license for Combo Cleaner. 7 days free trial available. Combo Cleaner is owned and operated by Rcs Lt, the parent company of PCRisk.com read more.
Quick menu:
- What is "Investment Into Building Homes For Orphans" spam email?
- 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?
Cyber criminals distribute spam emails in massive campaigns – therefore, thousands of users receive identical messages.
I have provided my personal information when tricked by this spam email, what should I do?
If you've provided personally-identifiable or finance-related data (e.g., ID card details, credit card numbers, etc.) – immediately contact the appropriate authorities. And you have disclosed your log-in credentials – change the passwords of all potentially compromised accounts and notify their official support without delay.
I have read a spam email but didn't open the attachment, is my computer infected?
No, opening/reading an email will not initiate any malware download/installation processes. Systems are infected when malicious attachments/links found in spam mail are opened.
I have downloaded and opened a file attached to a spam email, is my computer infected?
Whether the device was infected might depend on the opened file's format. Executables (.exe, .run, etc.) infect devices almost without fail upon being opened. While document formats (.doc, .xls, .pdf, etc.) may require additional user interaction (e.g., enabling macro commands) – to start downloading/installing malware.
Will Combo Cleaner remove malware infections present in email attachments?
Yes, Combo Cleaner is designed to detect and eliminate threats. It is capable of removing practically all known malware infections. Note that high-end malicious software usually hides deep within systems – therefore, performing a full system scan is essential.
Outstanding!
▼ Show Discussion