Kaspersky, a leading cybersecurity company, has identified a new wave of fraud that capitalizes on the Palestinian conflict and people’s desire to help its victims. Cybercriminals are using advanced social engineering techniques to trick potential victims into believing they are donating to those affected by the conflict.
To date, these criminals have disseminated over 500 fraudulent emails and created bogus websites to expedite the money transfer process. Kaspersky advises users to exercise caution and take preventative steps to verify the reliability of donation recipients.
Charitable frauds and scams often surface, frequently exploiting real disasters or emergencies to lure victims. Unfortunately, the Palestinian conflict is one such situation that is being exploited.
Kaspersky experts have noted a significant increase in the number of fraudulent emails sent in English, targeting users who may want to contribute donations they believe will aid the conflict’s victims, Kaspersky’s security solutions have uncovered more than 540 such emails.
In an attempt to exploit people’s sympathy for those affected by the conflict and their willingness to help, scammers use various social engineering techniques to entice victims into making fake donations, they impersonate charitable organizations and use emotional language to persuade users to click on a link that redirects them to a fraudulent website requesting donations. Notably, these deceptive messages come from various email addresses.
Andrei Kovton, a security expert at Kaspersky, advises, “The scammers try to write different versions of these emails to evade spam filters, for example, they use various donation-related phrases like ‘We implore your compassion and generosity’ or ‘We appeal to your kind hearts and benevolence.’ They also replace words like ‘help’ with synonyms such as ‘support’ or ‘assistance.’
Additionally, they frequently change the links and sender addresses. However, robust cybersecurity solutions protect against these maneuvers.”
The links in these emails lead to a fraudulent website that provides a simple explanation of the conflict, displays images, and encourages users to send donations.
The scammers facilitate money transfers by offering various options for cryptocurrency payments, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and more.
Kaspersky’s experts have discovered other fraudulent web pages that share the same wallet addresses used by the scammers, these pages claim to collect donations for various groups in the conflict region.
Kaspersky’s Advice to Avoid these Scams:
Unfortunately, these fraudulent webpages can multiply quickly, appearing with different designs to target diverse groups, therefore, it is advisable to scrutinize donation pages thoroughly before transferring money to avoid falling victim to scams. Legitimate charitable organizations are registered, and you can verify their credentials by checking them against well-known databases.
- Directly communicate with the charitable organizations you intend to donate to or support through, for online donations, manually type the organization’s website address rather than clicking on a link.
- If you have doubts about an organization you’ve checked, consider using well-established organizations that provide humanitarian support, such as United Nations relief agencies.
- Remember that it is unlikely that the affected individuals will reach out to you directly to solicit support, especially if they are unfamiliar to you, take the time to verify the organization before donating through it.
- Exercise caution when donating via social media platforms, as these are often used as a convenient way for charitable organizations to request donations. However, never assume that any donation request on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube is legitimate simply because a friend liked or shared it, take sufficient time to verify the organization before donating through it.
