A fresh wave of fraudsters is using the COVID-19 outbreak (coronavirus) to trick people. They trick the victims into giving them Bitcoins by posing themselves as representatives of common health and charities.
Fraudulent Schemes Having Links to Bitcoins
The notorious coronavirus threatened the global economy and put lots of people at health risk. According to a recent study, fraudsters have appeared attempting to prey on people’s distress despite the severity of the circumstances.
It cited the findings of Sophos, an IT security firm, which monitored the behavior of cybercriminals during the recent global crisis. The company’s leading research scientist, Chester Wisniewski, said the number of fraudsters attempting to exploit the situation is increasing rapidly. Cybercriminals started with basic phishing emails but are now getting more advanced, he said.
“Several groups utilizing malware began disguising their malicious wares as COVID-19-themed papers. Today we see cyber-attackers impersonating charities from the WHO, this period the Solidarity Response Fund from COVID-19. These emails are fake but look very genuine, and take advantage of new and unthinkable of charities until recently.
Wisniewski also reported that the chosen form of payments for fraudsters is Bitcoin:
“They try and the convince-tale hint is the Bitcoin request, rather than credit cards or other currency. Criminals tend to rely on cryptocurrencies to seek and maintain their privacy and freedom because of the ability to monitor and block real wire transfers and credit cards, as well as the Bitcoin payment request presented here is a sign of a problem with this document.
The Essence of the Fraudulent Schemes
Even though all emails sent by cybercriminals focus on the subject of COVID-19, they vary in terms of style and requests, explained the scientist. Several of them pitch costly guaranteed corona-proof masks, information on how to install a tunnel and general guides to keep the family and company protected all through the crisis.
The cyber attackers try to swindle the targets into downloading and running a fake program called COVID 19 TRACKER in yet another attempt at fraud. It is ostensibly proposing to monitor the epidemic of coronavirus in real-time on the street, area, state, and country of the individual.
Wisniewski explained however that the software includes mistakes in grammar and spelling.
The researcher spoke about how people can act to shield oneself from future frauds: “Either you support your country or not, hackers will e-mail you to manipulate your apprehension or suspicion. And to be straight on that. When you want guidance from people who understand what’s going on, find the nearest health authority or health ministry website.
And if you want to donate materially to those who support us stay strong in this struggle, don’t transfer Bitcoin, just go to the approved COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund web site.
