Despite the increase in the number of coronavirus cases around the world daily, online scammers are turning to cryptocurrencies like bitcoin (BTC) to steal money under the guise of the global pandemic. Fraudulent emails seek to steal bitcoins, bank details, and identities.
Cybersecurity Sophos, Chester Wisniewski on Thursday 20 March 2020, says some online scammers impersonate WHO in an attempt to steal cryptocurrency donations to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wisniewski, reported on WHO impersonators in a tweet, posting screenshots of emails from scammers.
According to Wisniewski, fraudsters are also trying to deceive people by sending them bitcoins as a donation to the WHO COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund it recently created with the United Nations Foundation to fight the spread of the pandemic. The fund also collects individual donations in addition to receiving the support of giants such as Facebook and Google.
However, the false request for donations reported by Wisniewski does not refer to the website at all. According to the screenshot, the impersonators are asking potential donors to donate by sending Bitcoin directly to an address given in the email. The impersonators also use a false address, [email protected], to scam people, according to data from the security researcher. At the press time, the two Bitcoin addresses are empty, according to data from the explorer at Blockchain.com.
However, those who are gullible enough to send crypto to the Bitcoin address included in the email will only enrich those who conducted this scam.
