According to reports, spam emails are circulating asking for donations in bitcoin to fight the coronavirus on behalf of the World Health Organization (WHO). Chester Wisniewski, a computer security consultant at Sophos Lab, shared a screenshot of an email with fraudulent and potentially dangerous content that is coping with the health crisis that has been impacting the world for a few months.
— Chester Wisniewski (@chetwisniewski) March 19, 2020 Wisniewski explains that the email talks about a false economic fund backed by governments and specialized institutions, which aims to raise USD 675 million to help countries most in need to respond to the coronavirus crisis during the month of April. Among the activities they pretend to want to finance is the distribution of medical supplies to health workers, the acquisition of laboratory equipment, scientific and preventive dissemination, and the development of a vaccine for the disease. In an interview with GlobalNews.ca , Wisniewski assured that they not only seek to steal bitcoins, but also the identity data of the victims , since one of the emails has a link that redirects to a website with a login form that requests data to give access to the false WHO page. It also ensures that other emails include an attached document that appears to be official government information, but actually hides a virus that can infect the computer with malware that will seek to obtain personal, bank, password and other sensitive information. The specialist recommends being alert to emails that have grammatical or typing errors, and advises to verify the integrity of the web pages and link, in addition to keeping the computers and antivirus software updated, and change all passwords if any danger is noticed. The researcher also called for donations to legitimate sites, such as the Covid Response Fund19 , although donations in BTC cannot be made on this website. However, there are many initiatives that have emerged within the cryptocurrency ecosystem to support the fight against this disease. Among them is the Folding @ Home project , led by Stanford University, which puts the power of computational processing at the service of research and fight against diseases, so cryptocurrency miners with GPU or CPU equipment can collaborate with this initiative . Likewise, the crowdfunding platform , Gitcoin announced that its next round of financing in Ethereum will include a space for projects in the health area , a category created among other reasons to promote research and combat of the coronavirus and that will begin on March 23. For the rest, it remains only to be alert to emails, web pages and fraudulent applications , such as those that have recently emerged to steal bitcoins through methods such as ransomware.
title: “Fraudulent Emails Ask For Bitcoin Donations Impersonating Who Identity” ShowToc: true date: “2023-02-26” author: “Michelle Mcalister”
According to reports, spam emails are circulating asking for donations in bitcoin to fight the coronavirus on behalf of the World Health Organization (WHO). Chester Wisniewski, a computer security consultant at Sophos Lab, shared a screenshot of an email with fraudulent and potentially dangerous content that is coping with the health crisis that has been impacting the world for a few months.
— Chester Wisniewski (@chetwisniewski) March 19, 2020 Wisniewski explains that the email talks about a false economic fund backed by governments and specialized institutions, which aims to raise USD 675 million to help countries most in need to respond to the coronavirus crisis during the month of April. Among the activities they pretend to want to finance is the distribution of medical supplies to health workers, the acquisition of laboratory equipment, scientific and preventive dissemination, and the development of a vaccine for the disease. In an interview with GlobalNews.ca , Wisniewski assured that they not only seek to steal bitcoins, but also the identity data of the victims , since one of the emails has a link that redirects to a website with a login form that requests data to give access to the false WHO page. It also ensures that other emails include an attached document that appears to be official government information, but actually hides a virus that can infect the computer with malware that will seek to obtain personal, bank, password and other sensitive information. The specialist recommends being alert to emails that have grammatical or typing errors, and advises to verify the integrity of the web pages and link, in addition to keeping the computers and antivirus software updated, and change all passwords if any danger is noticed. The researcher also called for donations to legitimate sites, such as the Covid Response Fund19 , although donations in BTC cannot be made on this website. However, there are many initiatives that have emerged within the cryptocurrency ecosystem to support the fight against this disease. Among them is the Folding @ Home project , led by Stanford University, which puts the power of computational processing at the service of research and fight against diseases, so cryptocurrency miners with GPU or CPU equipment can collaborate with this initiative . Likewise, the crowdfunding platform , Gitcoin announced that its next round of financing in Ethereum will include a space for projects in the health area , a category created among other reasons to promote research and combat of the coronavirus and that will begin on March 23. For the rest, it remains only to be alert to emails, web pages and fraudulent applications , such as those that have recently emerged to steal bitcoins through methods such as ransomware.
