Avoid getting scammed by fake "Donation To Charity Through You" emails

What kind of email is "Donation To Charity Through You"?

After reading this "Donation To Charity Through You" email, we determined that it is spam. This letter seeks aid from the recipient in distributing the sender's funds to charity. Supposedly, the recipient will be rewarded monetarily for their help. This spam mail most likely seeks to trick victims into disclosing their personal information and/or sending scammers money.

"Donation To Charity Through You" email scam overview

The spam email with the subject "Re:Gods Favoure," (may vary) is presented as a missive from a wealthy woman who had recently become pious. Supposedly, this imaginary sender inherited an exorbitant amount of money from her deceased husband. However, the widow was diagnosed with cancer, and the prognosis is not too promising.

The sender was gripped with religious fervor and decided to give her funds to charities for orphans, windows, and the underprivileged. With her health deteriorating, she sought assistance in this task from her relatives – but they embezzled the money. Hence, she decided to look for aid online, and thus she found the recipient.

Through her lawyer, the widow wants to distribute 10.5 million USD to charity with the recipient's help; it is implied that they will receive a commission for their assistance.

It must be stressed that all the information in this email is false. Typically, mail of this kind promotes phishing scams or seeks funds directly.

In case of the former, scammers can ask recipients to disclose their personally identifiable details, such as name, sex, age, nationality, occupation, address, contact information, ID/passport copy, etc. Data of this kind can be used for a variety of nefarious purposes, including identity theft.

Alternatively, victims of this scam can be requested to provide finance-related information for transferral of the charity-bound funds. Scammers may then use such data to facilitate fraudulent transactions or online purchases.

In the latter cases, cyber criminals ask victims to send them money for legitimate-sounding reasons like paying taxes or fees. Funds are usually obtained using difficult-to-trace methods like cash hidden in packages and shipped, gift cards, pre-paid vouchers, cryptocurrencies, etc. These methods decrease the chances of successful prosecution and fund retrieval for victims.

In summary, by trusting an email like "Donation To Charity Through You" – users can experience severe privacy issues, financial losses, and identity theft.

If you have already provided your personally identifiable or finance-related information to scammers – immediately contact the appropriate authorities.

And if you've disclosed your log-in credentials (e.g., by entering them into a phishing website/file, etc.) – change the passwords of all potentially compromised accounts and inform their official support without delay.

Threat Summary:

Name	"Donation To Charity Through You" spam email
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud
Fake Claim	Sender seeks recipient's aid in distributing 10.5 million USD to charity.
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.

Spam campaigns in general

Spam campaigns are used to promote various scams, such as phishing, sextortion, tech support, advance fee, refund, inheritance, lottery, and so forth. Deceptive emails/messages are also used to proliferate all kinds of malware.

While the widely held belief that spam mail is poorly written and riddled with grammatical/spelling errors is not untrue, it is not always the case. These emails can be competently crafted and even convincingly disguised as messages from legitimate entities (e.g., companies, organizations, service providers, authorities, etc.).

"New Policy For Salary, Bonuses And Overtime", "Security Token For Business Email Is Outdated", "Unclaimed Insurance", "Personal And Digital Security Has Been Breached", "Mailbox Security Maintenance", "DHL - Customs Clearance", "Payment Details", and "Camelot Lottery Solutions" are just some of our newest articles on spam campaigns.

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Malware is commonly distributed via spam campaigns. These emails/messages include malicious files as attachments or download links. Infectious files come in various formats, e.g., documents (Microsoft Office, Microsoft OneNote, PDF, etc.), archives (RAR, ZIP, etc.), executables (.exe, .run, etc.), JavaScript, and so on.

Malware download/installation is initiated once such a file is opened. However, some formats require additional actions to trigger infection processes. For example, Microsoft Office files need users to enable macro commands (i.e., editing/content), while OneNote documents require them to click embedded links or files.

How to avoid installation of malware?

We strongly recommend exercising caution with incoming emails, DMs/PMs, SMSes, and other messages. Attachments or links found in suspect/irrelevant mail must not be opened, as they can be harmful.

However, malware is not proliferated exclusively through spam mail. Therefore, we advise vigilance when browsing since the Internet is full of well-disguised deceptive and malicious content.

Additionally, all downloads must be performed from official and verified channels. Another recommendation is to activate and update programs using functions/tools provided by legitimate developers, as illegal activation ("cracking") tools and third-party updaters can contain malware.

It is paramount for device integrity and user safety to have a dependable anti-virus installed and kept updated. This software must be used to run regular system scans and to remove threats and 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 "Donation To Charity Through You" spam email letter:

Subject: Re:Gods Favoure,

Hello Friends,

My name is Mrs Sarah Kinr. I am a dying woman who has decided to donate what I have to charity through you.

You may be wondering why I chose you, since I don't know you and we have never met before. But the truth is that "someone has to be chosen". Let it be known to you that I am a little bit apprehensive, but I have the understanding that friends are discovered and friends are made. I have come to accept the fact that I cannot achieve success in this Project without trusting someone. This brings us to the need for both of us to have absolute trust and believe in one another as we can only fail if we divide in interests. Let trust and Honesty be our watchword throughout this Project.

Though, this medium (the Internet) has been greatly abused, I choose to reach you through it because, it still remains the fastest, surest and most secured medium of communication. However, this correspondence is purely private & confidential, and it should be treated as such. I wish to inform you once again that this Project is absolutely legitimate and all the operations will be performed without the breach of any international law(s).

 

I am 56 years old and was diagnosed of cancer about 2 years ago immediately after the death of my husband who had left me everything he had worked for. I have been touched by the LORD to donate from what I have inherited from my late husband to charity through you for the good work of humanity, rather than allow my greedy relatives to use my late husband's hard earned funds inappropriately.

I have not particularly lived my life so well, as I never really cared for anyone. Though I married a very rich man, I was never generous, I was always hostile to people and only focused on myself as that was the only thing I cared for since I don't have any child. But now, I regret all this as I now know that there is more to life than just wanting to have all the money in the world. I have asked the lord to forgive me all my sins and I believe he has, because He is merciful. I will be going in for an operation very soon, and I pray that I survive the operation.

I believe that if I have a second chance to come to this world again, I would live my life a different way from how I have lived it. Now that I may not live longer, I want mercy to be shown on my soul, so I have decided to give alms to the poor & charity organizations and to help the motherless children & orphans, the less privileged, and also for the assistance of widows, as I want this to be one of the last good deeds I do on earth before I pass on. Now that my health has deteriorated so badly, I cannot do this myself anymore. I once asked members of my family to close one of my accounts and distribute the money which I have there to charity organizations in Indian, Sudan, Bulgaria and Pakistan; but they refused and kept the money to themselves. Hence, I do not trust them anymore, as they seem not to be contented with what I have left for them.

 

I have decided to Donate & give the sum of US$10.5 Million (Ten Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) to charity through you. Presently, I have informed my lawyer about my decision in WILLING this fund to charity through any God-fearing and reliable person. I wish you all the best and may the good Lord bless you abundantly, and please use the funds well and always extend the good work to others. If you are interested in carrying out this task, I will inform my Lawyer so that he can arrange for the release of the funds to you. I know I have never met you before but my mind tells me to do this, and I hope you act sincerely. Now my questions are:-

1. Can you handle this project?
2. Can I give you this trust?
3. What will be your commission?

At the moment I cannot take any telephone calls, because I have a throat infection and have been restricted by my doctors who has advised that I deserve all the rest I can get as I am now too weak and fragile to do things myself because of my health condition.

I will appreciate your utmost confidentiality in this matter until the task at hand is accomplished, as I don't want anything that will Jeopardize my last wish, due to the fact that I do not want my relatives or family members standing in the way of my last wish. Send your urgent response to my private email address at: sarhkinlkin192@gmail.com

With Love & Personal Regards, .......,

Appearance of the "Donation To Charity Through You" spam email (GIF):

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Quick menu:

• What is "Donation To Charity Through You" 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 spam emails may include, they are not personal. This mail is sent out in large-scale campaigns – therefore, thousands of users receive identical (or incredibly similar) emails.

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

If you have provided your log-in credentials – change the passwords of all possibly exposed accounts and inform their official support. However, if the disclosed information was of a different personal nature (e.g., ID card details, passport photos/scans, credit/debit card numbers, etc.) – contact the appropriate authorities without delay.

I have read a spam email but didn't open the attachment, is my computer infected?

Reading an email poses no infection threat; devices are compromised when malicious attachments or links are opened/clicked.

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 format of the opened file. Once launched, executables (.exe, .run, etc.) cause infections almost without fail. However, some formats – like documents (.doc, .xls, .pdf, etc.) – might need additional actions to initiate malware download/installation. Hence, the infection can only be triggered after macro commands are enabled, embedded content is clicked, or other actions are performed.

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 performing a complete system scan is essential since sophisticated malicious software tends to hide deep within systems.

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