How to spot fake emails like "Bitcoin International Lottery"
Written by Tomas Meskauskas on
What is "Bitcoin International Lottery" scam?
Our analysis of the email has shown that it is a scam email disguised as a notification regarding a Bitcoin winning. Generally, the email claims that the recipient has won a large sum of money to trick them into disclosing personal information and likely transferring money to scammers. This and similar emails should be ignored.
More about the "Bitcoin International Lottery" scam email
This scam email falsely claims that the recipient has won $1,000,000 in the Bitcoin International Lottery, a lottery supposedly conducted by the Multi-State Lottery Association. It states that the recipient was selected from an automated random computer ballot of 25 million email addresses.
The email urges the recipient to keep the win confidential and asks for personal information, such as name, address, and occupation, to "process" the payment. The recipient is instructed to contact a "financial claims agent", Hammond Cole, via the provided email to claim the prize. The email also contains a fake reference and batch number to appear legitimate.
The scammers behind this fraudulent email intend to steal personal information and potentially extort money under the guise of "processing" fees. With stolen information, scammers may commit identity theft, sell the details to third parties on the dark web, or use them for other malicious purposes.
Also, if victims pay the demanded "processing fees", scammers may either disappear after receiving the payment or keep demanding more payments. This is a common tactic in advance-fee scams. Either way, the victim will never receive the promised prize.
| Name | Bitcoin International Lottery Email Scam |
| Threat Type | Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud |
| Fake Claim | The recipient has won $1,000,000.00 |
| Disguise | Notification regarding a lottery winning |
| 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. |
Similar scam emails in general
Usually, scams like these are designed to trick people into thinking they have won a large prize, then ask for personal information and upfront payments for fake processing, administration, or other fees. The goal is to steal money and sensitive details without delivering any prize. Victims end up losing their money, revealing sensitive information, or facing other issues.
Some examples of similar scams are "Loan Investment Opportunities For Your Business", "Funds Disbursed By Presidential Administration", and "PROTON LOTTERY". It is important to mention that deceptive emails can be used to trick recipients into infecting their devices.
How do spam campaigns infect computers?
Cybercriminals often use email to trick users into infecting their computers through malicious attachments or links. The files attached to such emails tend to be PDFs, MS Office files, executables, archives, or script files. Malware can be activated by opening infected executable files, enabling macros in compromised documents, or taking other actions.
Also, fraudulent emails may feature links that send users to malicious websites. On these sites, malware might be automatically downloaded onto the device, or users may be tricked into manually installing harmful software.
How to avoid installation of malware?
Exercise caution when dealing with emails that include links or attachments, especially if they appear unexpected, irrelevant, and (or) come from unknown addresses, etc. Make sure to keep your operating system and software up to date. Always obtain programs and files from reputable sources like official websites or trusted app stores.
Avoid interacting with ads, pop-ups, buttons, or links on dubious websites, and never allow suspicious pages to send notifications. For added protection, regularly scan your device with a reliable security tool. 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 the scam email (GIF):
Text presented in the "Bitcoin International Lottery" email letter:
Subject: I SEEK YOUR PARTNERSHIP IN INVESTMENT
Multi-State Lottery Association
1200 35th St., Ste. 701 West Des
Moines,
IA 50266-1908 U.S
Reference Number: BCL/19-DE/9317Batch: BCL/06/41
Dear Winner,
BITCOIN WINNING NOTIFICATION
The Multi-State Lottery Association is happy to inform you of the result of the just concluded end of month draws of the Bitcoin International Lottery draws.Unlike the weekly Wednesday and Saturday night
jackpot and cash game,This international lottery is conducted from an exclusive list of 25,000,000 e-mail addresses of individual and corporate bodies worldwide picked by an advanced automated random computer ballot search from the internet as part of our international promotions program which we conduct every month. No tickets were sold. hxxps://lottery.bitcoin.com/You have therefore been approved for a lump sum payout of $1,000,000.00 (One Million united states dollars) in cash credited to file BCL/19-DE/9317. This is
from a total cash prize of 50,000,000 (Fifty Million Dollars shared amongst the first fifty (50) lucky winners in this category. Due to the mix up of some numbers and names, we
advice that you keep this award from public notice until your claim has been processed and your money remitted to you as this is part of our security protocol to avoid double
claiming or unwarranted advantage of this program by the general public.You have been assigned an independent financial claims consultant,accredited by the Multi-State Lottery Association,whom would assist you in the processing and remittance of your prize funds into your designated bank account. For claims processing and remittance of your cash prize money to you.please immediately provide the under listed information.
NAME:.....................................
AGE:........................................
SEX:........................................
ADDRESS:...............................
EMAIL:....................................
PHONE:...................................
OCCUPATION:.........................
COMPANY:..............................
COUNTRY:...............................Please you are advised to immediately contact our accredited financial claims agent through email or fax for prompt collection of your funds.
(CONTACT FIDUCIARY FINANCIAL AGENT)
Name:Hammond cole
E mail: Jayhammondcole@gmail.comNote that all prize funds must be claimed not later than 2 weeks. After this date all funds will be returned to the LOTTERY TREASURY as unclaimed. In order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please endeavor to quote your Reference BCL/19-DE/9317 and Batch
numbers (BCL/06/41) in every correspondence with your agent.Furthermore, should there be any change in your address, do inform your claims agent as soon as possible.Congratulations once again from staff of Bitcoin International Lottery.
Yours faithfully,
Mrs.Mary Spencer.
Consultant,Bitcoin International
Lottery
Instant automatic malware removal:
Manual threat removal might be a lengthy and complicated process that requires advanced IT skills. Combo Cleaner is a professional automatic malware removal tool that is recommended to get rid of malware. Download it by clicking the button below:
▼ DOWNLOAD Combo Cleaner
By downloading any software listed on this website you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. 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.
Quick menu:
- What is Bitcoin International Lottery scam 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?
It is very likely that this email was sent to many people, as scammers typically use generic messages rather than personalized ones. They often collect email addresses from data breaches or other sources and then send out the same scam email to everyone on the list.
I have provided my personal information when tricked by this email, what should I do?
If you have shared your ID card details, bank information, or similar sensitive data with scammers, you should immediately notify the proper law enforcement agencies.
I have downloaded and opened a malicious file attached to a fraudulent email, is my computer infected?
It depends on the file type. For instance, opening a malicious executable can infect your computer immediately, whereas files like MS Office documents often require additional actions, such as enabling macros, before the malware is triggered.
I have sent cryptocurrency to the address presented in such email, can I get my money back?
These transactions are can be untraceable, making it unlikely that you will ever be able to recover your funds lost in a scam.
I have read the email but did not open the attachment, is my computer infected?
Emails are generally safe to open as long as recipients avoid interacting with any suspicious links or attachments that might carry malware (or lead users to malicious pages).
Will Combo Cleaner remove malware infections that were present in email attachment?
Combo Cleaner is suitable for identifying and removing most known malware. Some advanced threats may hide deep in the system. For complete assurance, it is recommended that users run a full system scan.
Outstanding!
▼ Show Discussion