How to recognize scams like "Moving Funds To Your Account" email scam

What kind of scam is "Moving Funds To Your Account"?

Our research has shown that it is a scam email offering recipients a large sum of money in return for cooperation. Typically, scammers behind scams like this (known as advance-fee scams) seek to trick recipients into sending them money and (or) personal information. It is advisable not to respond to such emails to avoid potential issues.

More about the "Moving Funds To Your Account" scam email

The scam email, supposedly from Ms. Zaynab Hassan, a regional audit manager at United Bank for Africa in Burkina Faso, contains a fraudulent proposal. The sender states that she discovered an unclaimed $5 million during an audit and needs assistance transferring the funds.

The recipient is offered a 40% share of the money if they agree to act as the beneficiary. The email mentions that the transfer can be safely completed through a bank-to-bank transaction or ATM card. However, this is a classic advance-fee scam designed to deceive recipients into sharing personal information or paying fees for a nonexistent payout.

Usually, when scammers behind such scams aim to extract personal information from recipients, they request credit card details, ID card information, or other details that can be misused to steal identities or for other malicious purposes. Either way, individuals should recognize such emails to avoid monetary loss, identity theft, and other negative consequences.

Threat Summary:

Name	Moving Funds To Your Account Email Scam
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud
Fake Claim	The recipient can claim a large sum of money
Disguise	Letter from a regional audit manager at United Bank for Africa in Burkina Faso
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.

Similar scam emails in general

Advance-fee scams are fraudulent schemes utilized to lure potential victims with promises of large financial rewards in exchange for personal information or upfront payments. It is important to recognize such fraudulent tactics and avoid responding to unsolicited offers that seem too good to be true, as they often lead to identity theft or financial loss.

Examples of similar emails are "Invest In Your Company Email Scam", "You Share The Same Name Email Scam", and "A Businessman Made A Fixed Deposit Of Huge Fund Email Scam". In addition to stealing money or personal information, emails of this kind can be used to deliver malware.

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Threat actors behind emails designed to deceive users into infecting computers often contain malicious attachments. These attachments can be executables, archives, MS Office documents, PDFs, script files, or others. Users activate malware when interacting with these files (e.g., enabling macros commands in infected documents or opening malicious executables).

Additionally, emails can contain links that distribute malware. By clicking these links, users can be redirected to fraudulent websites that trick them into downloading malware or initiate automatic downloads of malicious software.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Be cautious when dealing with emails that contain links or attachments. If an email seems unexpected, irrelevant, and (or) from an unknown sender—avoid interacting with its contents. Always download files and software from official websites or trusted app stores. Do not click ads, pop-ups, or links on dubious sites.

Ensure your operating system and software are regularly updated, and use a reliable security program. 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 "Moving Funds To Your Account" email letter:

Subject: Hello

Greeting,

My name is Ms. Zaynab, Hassan I am  currently Regional Audit Manager of United Bank for Africa Burkina Faso. I understand that this message must seem quite strange but I assure you, if my sources are correct, together we will be able to ensure the success of my proposal.

I got your email address contact details from your country,s guest book which i got from my late friend archive as a good match for future business that will make both of us very happy!

Although i am not comfortable to send this proposal to you because of increase in SCAM and FRAUD especially in Africa, but i am too sure that this is not Scam because you have access to confirm, and provided you all the necessary information you need to know, do not let my Bank know the source of your information. I have pack agenda financial transaction that will benefit both of us. As the currently Regional Audit Manager  of this bank United Bank for Africa Burkina Faso (UBA), it is my duty to send financial reports to my head office in the capital city of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. On the course of year 2022/2023 end of the year's report, i discovered that at my branch in which I am the Audit Manager, discovered the sum of US$5,000,000,00 (Fve Million United State Dollars. )  without beneficial and since then had PLACED this fund in an ESCROW CALL ACCOUNT without a beneficiary. As the regional manager of the bank, I cannot be directly connected to this money thus, i am impelled to request for your assistance to receive this money into your bank account.

I intend to part 40% of this fund to you while 60% shall be for me and two officers who will assist us to move the fund to your account. I do need to assure you that there is no risk involved in this Business. It’s going to be BANK TO BANK TRANSFER Or THROUGH ATM VISA CARD. All I need from you is to stand as the original depositor of this fund. If you accept this offer, i will appreciate your timely response and then we shall discuss on how we move on…

NB: Your early reply is highly welcomed and attaches your profiles, such as your name and address, and also your contact telephone number for easy means of communication.

Best Regards,Ms. Zaynab, Hassan

Another example of an email from "Moving Funds To Your Account" spam campaign:

Text presented within:

Subject: RE,,,,

 

Hello Dearest,

Allow me to inform you of my desire to enter into a business relationship with you. I have your contact from the directory of the international site. I prayed for this and chose your name among other names because of what my spirit told me that you are a reputable and reliable person to whom I can expose my proof and do business with. Therefore, you should not hesitate to trust this simple and honest matter.

I am Raphaël Kamara, the only son of the late Mr. and Mrs. VINCENT KAMARA. My father was a very wealthy cocoa merchant in Abidjan, the economic capital of Ivory Coast, before he was poisoned to death by his business partners during one of his trips to discuss a business deal.

When my mother died on August 6, 2019, my father accepted me especially because I am an only child and without a mother. Before my father died on March 30, 2024 in a private hospital here in Abidjan, he secretly called me to his bedside and told me that he had the sum of $7,500,000 (Seven Million Five Hundred Thousand Dollars) in a pending account in a bar. bank here in Abidjan, that he used my name as his only child for relatives in deposit the fund. He explained to me that it was because of this wealth and the large amount of money that his business partners had to balance with him because of the business they did, that he was poisoned by his associates of l business, that would seek a God. -The fear of the foreign partner in a country of my choice where I transferred that money and use it for investment purposes (such as property management).

Please, I respectfully request your assistance in the following ways.
1) To get the money for me in your account provide a bank account where the money will be transferred.
2) To serve as a guardian of this since I am an 18 year old kid with no business experience.
3) To help me come to your country once the money is transferred to your account so I can continue my studies and a new life.

I am ready to give 15% of the amount as compensation for the efforts made after the successful transfer of these funds to your designated overseas account. I look forward to hearing from you soon, please. Thank you and God bless you.

Best regards...

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Quick menu:

• What is Moving Funds To Your Account advance-fee 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?

Scammers often send out the same phishing email to a large number of recipients. They use email addresses obtained through data breaches or other means. These emails are typically generic, lacking any form of personalization (e.g., names)

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

If you have shared any account credentials, update all your passwords immediately. If scammers obtained your ID card information, credit card details, or other information, contact local authorities, your bank, or other relevant entities.

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

The risk of infection depends on the type of file you open. For instance, if you open a compromised Word document without enabling macros, you may avoid activating any malware. However, opening an infected executable file increases the chances of compromising your system.

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

Merely reading or opening emails is safe. Infections can happen when users open malicious attachments or click on fraudulent links within those emails.

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

Yes, Combo Cleaner is capable of detecting and removing malware. However, advanced malware can often embed itself deep within the system, making it essential to conduct a full system scan to eliminate any hidden malware.

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