How to recognize scams like "Organizing A Foundation"

What is "Organizing A Foundation" email scam?

Our team has examined the email and concluded that it is a scam. The scammers behind this email aim to trick recipients into believing they can obtain a large sum of money in return for "cooperation". Their goal is to extract personal information and (or) money. Recipients should ignore such emails to avoid potential consequences.

More about the "Organizing A Foundation" scam email

The scammers behind this email aim to trick recipients into believing they can receive a large sum of money. They pose as reverend Sister Maria Garcia, a 67-year-old suffering from pancreatic cancer, who allegedly wishes to donate $6,150,000.00 to the recipient. The email claims that the recipient should use 45% of the funds for personal needs and 55% for establishing a charity in the sender's name.

The scammers claim that the money is held in a secure bank in the Philippines and that the recipient should contact the sender's lawyer to initiate the transfer. Also, they request to provide details such as name, country, phone number, occupation, age, and sex.

Typically, scammers behind such emails aim to extract personal information or money from their victims. They often request upfront fees or payments, falsely claiming that these are necessary to process or facilitate fund transfers. Either way, such emails should be ignored to avoid financial loss, identity theft, or other issues.

Threat Summary:

Name	Organizing A Foundation Email Scam
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud
Fake Claim	The recipient can receive a large sum of money
Disguise	Letter from sister Maria Garcia regarding a donation
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. ▼ Download Combo Cleaner 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.

Conclusion

In conclusion, emails of this type are scams designed to deceive recipients into providing personal information or making payments. It is important to be cautious and skeptical of unsolicited messages that promise large sums of money or require upfront fees (or personal information).

Some examples of similar scams are "Donation Of Crypto Funds Email Scam", "International Human Rights Organisation Compensation Email Scam", and "British Columbia Lottery Email Scam". It is worth noting that fraudulent emails can be utilized to distribute malicious software.

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Threat actors can use email to deliver malware by tricking users into opening malicious attachments or links. These attachments may include executable files, MS Office documents, PDFs, compressed archives, JavaScript files, etc. However, not all malicious files cause infections immediately upon opening.

For instance, malicious executables can infect computers right after execution, but MS Office documents cannot inject malware unless users enable macros commands. Links in emails sent by cybercriminals can direct users to websites designed to trick them into downloading malware. These sites may also be created to automatically initiate malware downloads.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Download software from official web pages and app stores. Avoid using P2P networks, unofficial websites, third-party downloaders, and similar sources, and never download pirated software or use cracking tools (or unofficial key generators). Also, do not trust ads and various pop-ups on shady websites.

Keep the operating system and all installed software up to date. Additionally, install a reputable security tool and scan the operating system for threats on a regular basis. 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 "Organizing A Foundation" email letter:

Subject: CAN I TRUST YOU

Hello, I am hoping this mail finds you
 

I discovered your email via an online study I launched into and supported with my prayers and I decided that it's far pertinent to contact you for the motive of offering charity assistance to the terrible and poor people . I am doing this with absolute
trust because I believe that precise and good human beings still exist in this ungodly world.

My name is reverend sister Maria Garcia  and I am serving at San Agustin catholic church in Manila Philippines. I am 67years and
tormented by pancreatic exocrine cancer.  From all consultations, my situation has turn out to be worse and I have been made to know by my doctors that I might not stay more than eight weeks if I insist to embark on the subsequent surgical operation scheduled to be held next month at John's Hopkins health center Baltimore Maryland in the USA., and I have been scared about this.  Furthermore,  I don't have any child of my own due to the fact my spiritual commitment did not permit me to marry.

Due to these reasons beyond my powers, I have made up my mind to donate all my lifestyle savings, which seems to be at the sum of $6,150,000.00usd (Six Million One Hundred and Fifty Thousand US Dollars) to you. I give you the permission to utilize forty five percent (45%) of this fund for your private wishes which will be useful to you and your family, at the same time as you utilize the other Fifty Five Percent (55%) for charity work by means of organizing a foundation in your country under my name, for you to immortalize my name whilst my existence on this earth ends.

This cash is deposited in a dependable bank in the Philippines and Currently I have informed my legal professional approximately my selection to will this fund to you. You are to get back to me immediately if you are fascinated to perform this task, so that I can direct you on how to get in contact with my lawyer and account officer.

Lastly,  I know I have never met you or set my eyes on you before, but through prayers and fasting done by my spiritual adviser, Rev Fr Timothy Mercado Quiero, I was able to choose your address among all I came across with.  Provide the information below through my private email address (revmariagarcia@gmail.com) in other to fulfill this which bothers me most:

NAME:………………?
YOUR  COUNTRY:…………?
YOUR  PHONE NO:………?
OCCUPATION:……………?
AGE:……………………………?
SEX:………………………?

Sincerely,
Reverend Sis. Maria Garcia

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Quick menu:

• What is Organizing A Foundation scam?
• 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?

Typically, scammers behind such emails send identical emails to numerous recipients, each featuring generic and non-personalized content. It is likely that scammers obtained your email address from data breaches or deceptive pages.

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

If you have provided your full name, phone number, and similar details, contact the relevant authorities (local police).

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

If the file you encountered was an executable, it is highly likely that your system is infected. However, if the file was a document (such as a .pdf or .doc), you might have avoided infection, as merely opening such documents does not always allow malware to enter the system.

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

Opening an email by itself is safe and does not pose a threat to your system. Malware can infiltrate system when recipients open the included links or files.

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

Yes, Combo Cleaner is effective at identifying and removing most types of malware. However, since some advanced malware can hide deeply in the system, it is important to perform a full system scan to ensure that all traces of the malware are detected and eliminated.

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