How to spot scams like "World Covid-19 Support Program (W.C.S.P)"

What is "World Covid-19 Support Program (W.C.S.P)"?

We have analyzed the email and found that it is a fake notification that the recipient has been selected as a beneficiary of a large sum of money. The scammers behind this email aim to lure recipients into transferring them money and (or) disclosing personal information. Such emails should be ignored.

More about the "World Covid-19 Support Program (W.C.S.P)" scam email

This scam email claims to be an official notification from the "World Covid-19 Support Program (W.C.S.P)". It alleges that the recipient has been awarded €5,000,000 as part of a global humanitarian program supposedly initiated to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, and international conflicts.

It claims to be from a regional office in London, UK, and falsely attributes its funding to the World Bank Group, citing a fictitious allocation of $204 billion. To appear more credible, the email also mentions global events, such as the Russia-Ukraine war and the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Furthermore, the email instructs recipients to contact a "General Coordinator", supposedly a professor named Adrik Tolinyev, via the provided email address (adrik0009887@gmail.com). Lastly, it requests personal details, including full name, address, date of birth, phone number, and marital status, to process the "donation".

Typically, scammers behind such emails seek to obtain personal information to exploit victims further or commit identity theft. Also, they can ask to pay "administration" or similar fees to extract money from victims. Either way, individuals should remain cautious of unsolicited offers, verify the legitimacy of claims, and never share sensitive information in response to shady emails.

Threat Summary:

Name	World Covid-19 Support Program (W.C.S.P) Email Scam
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud
Fake Claim	The recipient has been chosen as the beneficiary of 5 million euros
Disguise	Letter from World Covid-19 Support Program
Symptoms	Generic greeting, urgent language, suspicious links, grammatical errors.
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 are designed to steal personal information and potentially money by promising generous financial offers. Recipients who fall for such scams never receive any money and often become victims of identity theft or lose their money. To protect themselves, recipients should be cautious, avoid responding, and never provide any personal or financial information.

Examples of similar scams are "Elon Musk - Donation From Change Email Scam", "World Bank Group - Overdue Payment Email Scam", and "Unclaimed Insurance Email Scam". It should be mentioned that cybercriminals can use deceptive emails to manipulate recipients into infecting their computers.

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Emails created to deliver malware include malicious attachments or links. When opened, these attachments can infect a system, either immediately or after the user takes certain actions. For instance, malicious executables can infect a device right after opening them, while infected MS Office files may require the user to enable macros (enable editing or content).

If the email contains harmful links, cybercriminals try to deceive the recipient into downloading malicious files or software or visiting compromised websites that automatically download malware on computers. Overall, malware activation occurs when users take certain steps.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Be cautious with emails, especially from unknown senders, and avoid clicking suspicious links or opening attachments. Use up-to-date antivirus software and regularly update other apps (and the operating system). Only download files from trusted sources, such as official web pages and app stores.

Avoid interacting with pop-ups, advertisements, buttons, and similar elements on questionable websites. Stay informed about the latest cybersecurity threats. If you have already opened malicious attachments, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate infiltrated malware.

The appearance of "World Covid-19 Support Program (W.C.S.P)" scam email (GIF):

Text presented in this scam email:

Subject: -- Official Notification (W.C.S.P).

--
Official Notification (W.C.S.P).
Regional Office: 40 Denbigh Street,
 Whitehall Ct, London SW1V 2HF,
United Kingdom.

We wish to inform you officially that your name was selected as a beneficiary for the World Covid-19 Support Program (W.C.S.P), And you have been awarded a donation of EUR.5,000,000.00 (Five Million Euro), for the 2024 (W.C.S.P). Your Award Number: #865443009766COVID. This Program started in 2022 after so many families, Businesses and companies around the globe were locked down due to the troubles caused by COVID-19 pandemic, Natural disasters and war around the world, Russia/Ukraine, Israel/Palestine and many other countries of the world. The World Bank Group (WBG) allocated $204 Billion Dollars to USA and UK through several indoor conferences and initiated this global funding program to support people in different countries of the world.

General Payment Terms And Conditions (GPTCs):

Your fund will be released to you through any of our regional payment banks within Europe, your file will be processed simultaneously, as directed by the authority UK/USA World Corona Global Humanitarian support program. You are to contact the procession department through the Coordinator, Email: adrik0009887@gmail.com

You have to send these following information's to the procession department, through the General Coordinator (Prof.Adrik Tolinyev) for further procession:

** Full Name:
** Address:
** Date of birth:
** Age:
** Tel No:
** Occupation:
** Sex:
** Marital Status:
** Country:

Your donation of EUR.5,000,000.00 (Five Million Euro) is available to be released to you.

Congratulations on your donation!

Thank you.
(Prof.Adrik Tolinyev).
Email: adrik0009887@gmail.com
(General coordinator).

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Quick menu:

• What is World Covid-19 Support Program (W.C.S.P) 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?

You received this email because it is part of a scam. The sender is trying to trick you into giving personal information or clicking on harmful links. Scammers usually send such emails to many people, hoping some will fall for them.

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

If you have sent personal information to scammers, inform the relevant authorities about the situation and do not respond to suspicious emails in the future.

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

If the file was an executable, there is a high chance your system is infected. However, if it was a document (like a .pdf or .doc), you may have avoided infection, as simply opening these files doesn't always trigger malware. The risk depends on the type of file.

I have sent cryptocurrency to the address presented in such email, can I get my money back?

These transactions are difficult to trace, so recovering the funds is hardly possible.

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

Opening an email is safe. However, clicking links and opening files presented in shady emails can lead to computer infections.

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

Combo Cleaner is effective at detecting and removing nearly all types of malware. However, advanced malware often hides deep within the system, so it is crucial to perform a full system scan to ensure thorough detection and removal.

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