Avoid getting scammed by fake "Global Greengrants Fund Lottery" emails
Written by Tomas Meskauskas on
What kind of email is "Global Greengrants Fund Lottery"?
Our inspection of the "Global Greengrants Fund Lottery" email revealed that it is spam. This mail claims that the recipient has won five million USD and urges them to contact the claims agent.
The purpose of this scam is to deceive recipients into disclosing sensitive information and/or sending money to scammers. It must be emphasized that this email is not associated with the actual Global Greengrants Fund charitable foundation.
"Global Greengrants Fund Lottery" email scam overview
This spam email is presented as an "award notification". The letter (incorrectly) details the activity and the supposed lotteries held by the Global Greengrants Fund. The recipient is informed that their email address was drawn as a winner through a computer ballot system. From the 150,100,000 USD prize fund, the recipient has won 5,000,000 USD.
The recipient must claim their prize within thirty days, and they are warned against disclosing the news of their win until they have the funds in their possession.
It must be reiterated that all the information in this email is false, and this mail is in no way associated with the real Global Greengrants Fund or any other organizations or lotteries.
Typically, scams of this kind target information or money. Cyber criminals can seek personally identifiable details (e.g., passport scans/photos, ID card info, etc.), account log-in credentials (e.g., emails, social media, online banking, digital wallets, etc.), and finance-related data (e.g., banking account details, credit/debit card numbers, etc.).
Victims can also be deceived into sending funds to scammers. Difficult-to-trace methods are used to acquire money, such as cash hidden in packages and shipped, gift cards, pre-paid vouchers, cryptocurrencies, etc. By relying on these methods, cyber criminals lower the chances of successful prosecution and of victims retrieving their funds.
In summary, by trusting an email like "Global Greengrants Fund Lottery" – users can experience severe privacy issues, financial losses, and even identity theft.
If you have already disclosed your log-in potentials – change the passwords of all potentially compromised accounts and inform their official support without delay. However, if you've provided personally identifiable or finance-related information – immediately contact the appropriate authorities.
| Name | "Global Greengrants Fund Lottery" spam email |
| Threat Type | Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud |
| Fake Claim | Recipient has been drawn as a winner of $5 million. |
| Disguise | Global Greengrants Fund |
| 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. |
Spam campaigns in general
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Deceptive mail is used to promote various scams and to distribute malware. While the commonly held belief that spam emails are poorly put together and full of spelling/grammatical errors is not untrue, it is not always the case. These letters can be competently made and believably disguised as messages from legitimate entities (e.g., organizations, charities, lotteries, companies, institutions, service providers, authorities, etc.).
Due to how widespread spam email is and how well-crafted it can be – we highly recommend exercising caution with incoming emails, DMs/PMs, SMSes, and other messages.
How do spam campaigns infect computers?
Spam campaigns are prevalent in malware distribution. Deceptive emails/messages can have infectious files attached to or linked inside them. These files can be documents (Microsoft Office, Microsoft OneNote, PDF, etc.), archives (ZIP, RAR, etc.), executables (.exe, .run, etc.), JavaScript, and so on.
When a malicious file is opened – the infection chain is initiated. Some formats need additional interaction to begin downloading/installing malware. For example, Microsoft Office files require users to enable macro commands (i.e., editing/content), while OneNote documents need them to click on embedded links or files.
How to avoid installation of malware?
It is important to treat incoming emails and other messages with caution. Attachments or links found in dubious/irrelevant mail must not be opened, as they can be harmful or virulent.
It must be mentioned that malware is not spread exclusively via spam mail. Therefore, we recommend being careful while browsing since fraudulent and malicious online content usually appears genuine and harmless.
All downloads must be made from official and verified channels. Another recommendation is to activate and update software using functions/tools provided by legitimate developers, as illegal activation tools ("cracks") and third-party updates may contain malware.
It is essential to have a reputable anti-virus installed and kept updated. Security programs must be used to perform regular system scans and to remove detected threats/issues. 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 "Global Greengrants Fund Lottery" spam email letter:
Subject: GLOBAL GREENGRANTS FUND AWARD NOTIFICATION
GLOBAL GREENGRANTS FUND
145 City Road, London EC1V1AZ
United Kingdom.
Ref: EAASL/941OYI/03
Batch: 12/25/DC34
AWARD NOTIFICATION!!
Dear Our Lucky Winner,
Global Greengrants fund has received a four-star rating, the highest score possible, from Charity Navigator, the Global Greengrants fund is a Non Profit Organisation (000-394-NPO) and Public Beneficiary Organisation (PBO 930010666), committed to eradicating poverty and bringing about positive change for the people of our society, country and Globally (World-wide).
We happily announce and congratulate you over your email success in our computer balloting of the Global Greengrants fund International Lottery programs held on 5th July 2024 in the United Kingdom. This is a millennium scientific computer game in which email addresses were used as promotional program.
Attached to ticket number: B9564 75604545 188 with! Serial number 97560 drew the winning: 59/84/26/17/35, which subsequently won and awarded you in the 2nd category. You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of US$5,000,000.00 (Five Million United States Dollars) in cash credited to file KPC/9080118308/02. This is from a total cash prize of US $150,100,000.00 Million dollars, shared amongst the first Thirty (30) lucky winners in this category world-wide.
All participants were selected randomly from World Wide Web site through a computer ballot system and extracted from over 100,000,00 countries world wide. This promotion takes place bi-annually for security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential till your claims is processed and your money remitted to you in whatever manner you deem fit to claim your prize. This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program by some unscrupulous elements.
Please be informed that all winning must be claimed on or before 30 days. To avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please quote your reference/batch numbers in all correspondences with us or our designated agent. Congratulations once more from all members and staffs of this program that has successfully participated in making this year program a success.
Sincerely,
Mr. Agent.
This information transmitted is only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material, any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of this information, or taking of any action in reliance upon this information, by person or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited.
If you received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any computer. Thank you for
your co-operation.
Contact Your Agent
Mrs Sarah Hendricks
Email sarahhendricks2024@gmail.com
Appearance of the "Global Greengrants Fund Lottery" spam email (GIF):
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Quick menu:
- What is "Global Greengrants Fund Lottery" 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?
Regardless of any relevant information that they may include, spam emails are not personal. Cyber criminals distribute this mail in massive operations with the hopes that at least some recipients will fall for their scams.
I have provided my personal information when tricked by this spam email, what should I do?
If you have disclosed your account credentials – immediately change the passwords of all potentially exposed accounts and inform their official support. And if you've provided other private data (e.g., ID card details, passport photos/scans, credit card numbers, etc.) – contact relevant authorities without delay.
I have read a spam email but didn't open the attachment, is my computer infected?
System infection processes are triggered when malicious attachments or links are opened/clicked; merely reading an email poses no such threat.
I have downloaded and opened a file attached to a spam email, is my computer infected?
Whether your device was compromised might depend on the format of the opened file. Executables (.exe, .run, etc.) cause infections almost without fail upon being opened. While documents (.doc, .xls, .pdf, .one, etc.) may need additional user interaction to jumpstart malware download/installation chains (e.g., enabling macro commands, clicking embedded files/links, etc.).
Will Combo Cleaner remove malware infections present in email attachments?
Yes, Combo Cleaner can detect and eliminate almost all known malware infections. It must be stressed that running a complete system scan is essential since sophisticated malicious programs typically hide deep within systems.
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