Fake Emails Impersonating United Nations Foundation Discovered

Security experts of security firm Malwarebytes warned that cyber crooks have launched scam emails claiming to be from United Nations Foundation which supports its causes but, collects personal information from recipients.

Interestingly, scam emails are designed to convince users to reply and it uses a giveaway offer of $5 / 4.67 million Euros as bait explaining "to help start a business, grow an existing business or give someone out there a better life."

Out of absolute luck, the recipient happened to be the lucky winner of the lottery which allegedly depends on random selection.

Softpedia.com published news on 16th April, 2015 quoting Christopher Boyd, a Security Researcher of Malwarebytes, as saying "this is just a variation of "419" scam which has been seen in the wild in different forms since at least one year."

Crooks ask for full name of the victim and the company they work for, phone number, address, occupation, age and marital status.

This information could be used for contacting the potential victim and make the scam looks like a genuine operation.

However, the United Nations clearly states on its official website that it has come to know about various notifications being circulated via emails from online web sites, text messages and through usual mail or duplicate wrongly saying that these are issued by it or in collaboration with the United Nations and/or its workers. These notifications are fraudulent as they may try to collect money and/or in many incidences, personal information from the recipients of such fake correspondence.

The website further reads: "The United Nations doesn't offer prizes, funds, awards, certificates, scholarships, compensation for Internet fraud or carry out lotteries through mail, email or fax.

The United Nations stoutly recommends that recipients of such scam emails underlined by the UN should exercise maximum caution to deal with such solicitation. You could lose financially and your identity to those who issue such fraudulent notifications. Victims are advised to report to their local law enforcement bodies for appropriate and strictest action that can be taken against the masterminds of such heinous plots that may leave an innocent individual empty-pocketed.

» SPAMfighter News - 4/24/2015