How to identify scam emails like "World Bank Group - Overdue Payment"

What is "World Bank Group - Overdue Payment"?

Our review of the email has revealed that it is a fraudulent message pretending to be from the World Bank Group regarding a confirmed overdue payment. This scam email is designed to deceive recipients into providing personal information and (or) sending money to the scammers. It should not be trusted.

More about the "World Bank Group - Overdue Payment" scam email

As mentioned in the introduction, this email is disguised as a letter from the World Bank Group. It informs the recipient that their email address has been selected to receive a relief compensation fund of $4,500,000. It claims that this fund is part of a program to support individuals during the economic crisis and encourages to contact a claims representative, Mrs. Emily Abdellatif.

It also instructs to provide personal details, such as full name, occupation, home address, date of birth, sex, and phone number, for fund release. Additionally, the email includes details such as a fake reference number and fraudulent email addresses (collectorcla0022@gmail.com, reswads5@outlook.com, and collectorcla0022@usa.com) and fake photos of people who have claimed their funds.

The requested information, if provided, may be used for identity theft or other fraudulent activities. Also, the scammers may attempt to convince recipients to pay fake fees (e.g., administration fees) or provide banking information to access the promised funds.

Therefore, it is important to be careful when receiving emails of this kind and not provide any personal information or make financial transactions to avoid monetary loss, identity theft, or other issues.

Threat Summary:

Name	World Bank Group - Overdue Payment Email Scam
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud
Fake Claim	The recipient can claim a large sum of money ($4,500,000)
Disguise	Letter from the World Bank Group
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

Emails of this type often promise large sums of money as a lure. They use logos, company addresses, and other details to seem legitimate and encourage recipients to share personal information or contact specific individuals to claim compensation, rewards, etc. The ultimate goal is to extract money or personal information.

Examples of similar emails are "COVID - Sick and Family Leave Act", "Donation To Charity Through You", and "Unclaimed Insurance". It is important to be aware that fraudulent emails can be (and often are) used to trick recipients into infecting their computers with malware.

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Cybercriminals distribute malware via email by including infected attachments or malicious links. When users open these attachments, such as documents, scripts, or executable files, malware can be introduced to their systems (although certain types require additional actions from the user to inject malware).

For instance, malware embedded in Microsoft Office files can only execute if the user activates (enables) macros. When threat actors send links, clicking them can direct users to deceptive websites that prompt them to download malware or initiate automatic downloads without their knowledge and consent.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Do not open links and attachments in suspicious emails (e.g., irrelevant or unexpected emails from unknown addresses). Download programs and files from official pages or app stores. Avoid using other sources and downloading pirated software, cracking tools, key generators, etc. Do not trust advertisements, pop-ups, buttons, and similar content encountered on shady sites.

Keep the operating system and all software up to date. Regularly scan your computer for threats using a reputable security solution. If you have already opened malicious attachments, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate infiltrated malware.

Appearance of the "World Bank Group - Overdue Payment" scam email (GIF):

Text presented in the "World Bank Group - Overdue Payment" email letter:

WORLD BANK GROUP
Head office: The World Bank Group
Washington, DC 20433 United States
Customer Ref: WBGUST647TDH

FOREIGN EXCHANGE UNIT
CREDIT SECTION FUND MONITORING AND AUTHORISATION DEPARTMENT
CONFIRMATION OF OVERDUE PAYMENT

Attn: Active Email Beneficiary.
RE: Approved On-Hold Fund of $4,500,000.00

This message serves to inform you that the joint agencies with the Board of Directors of the World Bank Group and the Chase Bank with Department of the Treasury of the United States have finally concluded an arrangement towards the approval of On-Hold, Covid-19 Relief Fund, Contracts, Investment, Lotto and Inheritance Funds in financial support to individuals and private sector due to current World economic crises to help eradicate poverties and boost businesses in societies through active email address as the key identification for setting up online accounts with all valid email addresses in the Worldwide.

Your active email address has been selected and listed among the 10 Million active email address in our database on first 5,000 people to benefit from the Relief Compensation Funds approved in tune of US$4,500,000.00 (Four Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars Only) Moreover, due to lack of cooperation and communicating with Bank officials, the Relief Compensation funds has kept Unpaid till date, in view to this, The World Bank Group in conjunction with the Chase Bank and Department of the Treasury, United States has agreed to release all the On-Hold funds immediately to the beneficiaries allocated at this first category without further delay since we are at the end of the financial year 2024.

NOTE; You will receive your payment from our authorized paying Bank through Bank to Bank transfer OR Certified International Unlimited Debit Master/Visa Card.

Therefore, we advise you to contact our Regional claim representative officer immediately and reconfirm your details below to enable our authorised paying bank to release the relief compensation fund of US$4,500,000.00 (Four Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars Only) due for you. Name: Mrs Emily Abdellatif Email:
collectorcla0022@gmail.com / reswads5@outlook.com / collectorcla0022@usa.com

Kindly quote the payment Reference.No: WBCBOEHMTUS57856

Your Full Name:
Occupation:
Country of Origin:
Home address:
Date of Birth:
Sex:
Tel No:
Relief Compensation Amount:

Congratulations.
Sincerely Yours,
Mr Jun Anthony
Director Relief Compensation Fund
The World Bank Group.

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Quick menu:

• What is World Bank Group - Overdue Payment phishing 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?

Scammers send identical messages to thousands of people, hoping that at least a few will be tricked into responding. These spam emails lack any personalization.

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

If you have shared any account credentials, promptly update all your passwords (especially if the provided credentials can be used to access more than one account). For other personal information, like credit card details or ID numbers, contact the relevant authorities immediately.

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

The risk of infection varies based on the type of file and the user’s actions. For instance, executable files can infect a computer immediately when opened. Document files like .pdf or .doc are generally safer since they do not run malware automatically and usually need additional actions from the user to activate any potential threats.

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

Simply opening an email is harmless. Computer infections can occur when you click on links within the email or open attached files.

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

Combo Cleaner can detect and remove nearly all known threats. However, advanced malware often hides deep into the system, so performing a full system scan is highly recommended to ensure thorough removal.

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