Bitcoin Forum

This isn't a scam accusation, but this is an immediate red warning for cryptocurrency users. I received spam mail from noreply@vdab.be with the title "Monica wants to send you 0.001 BTC". I have received 2 similar mail from the same email with a different link. Links are below, I don't bother to click there, and please don't try to check by clicking these links.
I am pretty sure both addresses included malware that would hack your device. I can't see any reason why they would like to send BTC to me. I am not familiar with them nor with their links. And I am not too greedy for their BTC offer. Please guys don't be greedy and don't click the links in case you receive such as spam mail.

Out of curiosity, I wanted to know what kind of scam it is, so I just checked the links using my non crypto related old device and the good news is the links seem to be broken or have been removed from tumblr.com.

But yeah, any free things offered to anyoner by some random stranger simply means it's not legit.

I usually ignored spam mails on my email account, I just only open those emails that come from my inbox, not on the spam email box.
This is the reason why we always separate our personal email accounts into the business email account that we frequently use, sometimes we don't know that it has already been exposed, and might they will use it to take advantage of you.

Anyway, thanks for the heads up and obviously this is a scammed attempt that could be the link shared have malware that could lead to scamming your account.  It might OP need to change a new email account or this recent one might be a risk too.

Greedy + Naive was a perfect combination that could be hackers who can't take advantage of us.

If you are using Gmail then such mails will automatically go into the spam folder. I have been receiving them too but they always get recognised by Gmail as spam. Nothing new, it is an old trick the scammers use and astonishingly people to date do fall for such scams.

Nothing is free always remember and why would someone want to donate Bitcoin for free? always ask this question when you receive such emails.

I also received one, but not from Monica. It's from Martha. The scammers must love the letter M more than any other.

https://i.imgur.com/2kZIR96.png

Anyway, the title itself is already a big failure. Nobody should fall for it. Other than the fact that it is sent to spam, which could even be enough to outright disregard the email as trash, the bait is very clear. Why should anybody donate me Bitcoin out of the blue? I was not asking for it. I did not solicit Bitcoin donation.

If something is freely sent from the heavens above, it is most likely a scam. Beware!

Regarding the malware, how dangerous it is for a link to easily hacked someone's device? Is it worked like that or the user need to download anything from the link? Cause if only a click can already penetrate someone device and hacked everything he have then its really a dangerous scammer.

Thanks for sharing this modus.

If you receive spam email, you should check your email with https://haveibeenpwned.com/

[Guide] How to know if your email address was part of any data breach. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5201569.0)

Consider to use disposable email [Guide] Using Disposable Email Address to Prevent Spam (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5272327.0) when you register account for trial, for testing new platforms.

yeah, one click can lead to your information being leak that's why malicious links can be very dangerous. from what I have understood there are malicious links that would automatically download harmful files onto your device, there are links that would lead you to a webpage(or something like that) where the hacker can obtain important information from your device. sorry I can't really explain it more in detail since I am not an expert in this field and this is how I understood it when I searched around on the internet about how some malicious links work in the past.

It's meant to trick those that don't know any better. It's quite common to hook users up with some form of financial incentives as a bait.

These are quite dumb, you should probably be more wary of spear phishing. Those are far more targeted and convincing.

Clearly. I also have in my spam folder a mail with the subject "wait 3 confirmation 0.01747342BTC" which doesn't make sense since I didn't send nor had to receive that amount of money that day.
And since it's fishy, it can stay very good unopened in the spam folder  :)
However, keep in mind that the subject may be different, but the idea is probably the same: phishing or malware. Beware.

I have been getting these crap spam emails as well recently. The interesting thing is that I have received them on email addresses that are not directly associated with any of my crypto activities except that I use one for some of my exchange registrations.

In my case it wasn't Monica who wanted to award me. :) It was Jane and Martha.

One click is enough to download something nasty and get infected. But usually you are also required to install either a fake wallet or a script. The things you get infected with can vary from malware, keyloggers, fake software, or clipboard hijackers. It can also be an attempt to try and trick you into revealing your recovery phrase or private keys as the site could lie that a new version of your wallet is available and the old one has become obsolete for security reasons.

This may not be the exact site where these scam email take you (they may change over time), but a recent archived page from end of July displays that those type of URLs are redirected here:


See: https://archive.ph/3zZ7A


When you provide your name and requitred BTC address in the redirected site (to receive the funds), you get a bunch of users who are willing to help you (the site does an automatic scam scan for them). When you click on accept "Translation" (not Transaction), a button to withdraw displays the accumulated accepted BTCs so far, but it does not allow you to proceed until you accept all 50+ donations (each time you accept one, you need to wait four seconds for the next to display, while the URL changes each time).

After you very patiently accept all donations, and accumulate 0,055 BTCs or so, you get a message in the line of what one may expect:


https://archive.ph/Hsqhq

You can see people do actually fall for it (29 TXs since July 30th):
https://blockchair.com/bitcoin/address/3NAMjBZ39r18XLcThKhyBko7Myo9BgoeMo
It may not be the only BTC address though being used.


Scammer’s Modus operandi depicted …


Some reports here, although not too clarifying in the reports:
https://www.scamdoc.com/view/628867

Thank you very much for your tips, it is helpful for some people.

The planning and use of mailboxes is very important.

1. Using multiple emails, classification can solve the spam problem to a certain extent.
2. Open attachments and links carefully. Unfamiliar emails may contain viruses and advertisements. To ensure the safety of our property, do not click any buttons.
3. Do not disclose your email address. If you must disclose your email address, you can register a spam mailbox as a spam warehouse.
4. Use "Auto Reply" with caution
5. Report spam
6. Use Spam Mail Clear Software
7. Use the spam filter function, most mailboxes provide this function.

Yeah, I was kind of wondering why OP and other members who posted in this thread received similar e-mails.  It looks like either these scammers got ahold of bitcointalk members' e-mails or those e-mails were used for some unrelated crypto things and got sold or hacked.

I get infrequent spam in my primary e-mail account, and when I see that there's any in my spam box, I usually just delete them without even looking to see what they're about.  I'd bet you that I've probably gotten e-mails like the ones OP showed, and I'll be on the lookout for any in the future if only to satisfy my curiosity about how my e-mail was obtained.  I don't use that address for any other bitcoin-related things, so the only way a scammer could have gotten it is through bitcointalk (or if they just happen to be a scammer using bitcoin as their tactic and got a list of e-mails from another source).

Hopefully members here are smart enough not to click links from crap like this.  You shouldn't even open the e-mail in my opinion.

If you’re one of those victims of Ledger Leak or maybe Facebook, then you don’t need to check anything to find out that your email address is in some secret or public database. Even if you are not a victim of a database hack, it is a well-known fact that everyone trades information such as email addresses.

Take the test by creating, say, 5 unique e-mail addresses and then registering on 5 different online platforms related to cryptocurrencies - then track what you will receive at those e-mail addresses in the future.

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And more than an obvious example of scam for which only those who are in the largest category of naive people are caught. I still find much more dangerous those emails that have a much more sophisticated approach, because they don't ask for money right at the beginning or offer anything - but it's usually a very handsome girl in trouble to run away from the abuser's father or something like that.

They likely registered on bad websites that sold customer email addresses or spam emails of customers.

I always ignore those emails but I did not delete them immediately. Sometimes I delete them instantly, sometimes not but I delete them later. I never click on those emails to see what the content is.

I did not know how it caused spam emails but if I try it, I will try it with my email that I never use for my exchange accounts.

This is the issue. As you said smart member obviously could ignore clicking this kind of link like I didn't click on the link. Rather than just deleted it forever, so even mistake I won't click there. But sadly a few unsmart or greedy members often fall into this trap. They think this is free money why should miss it out. As a result, somehow they have been getting scams or hack. The scammer knows very well if they send mail to many users there are some stupid and greedy who will click on links and hackers would take advantage of hacking or scamming.

Sharing the email address is the first mistake and opening spam messages is the second. You should open these messages regardless of their content because you will not get anything useful from them.

Greed can be accepted for opportunities with risky investment and not for obvious cases of scam that end only with losing your money.

Two things do not open emails coming from spam even if the title is very interesting, they are tempting you to open their emails, another one do not believe in free Bitcoin, even on faucets you have to do certain tasks and this is not 2010 where you can claim one free Bitcoin, the target here are newbies and even if it landed in your primary folder, just hit spam so Gmail will mark it spam.

Another tip I would like to add, if you can, try to make your email name longer than expected, not a lot of spams have plagued me besides those sites that I know that I've used it, I don't know if it works.

It will not work I have a very long email address and it's still getting a lot of spam emails they just copy-paste these emails even if it's short or long in their database, and they are not sending it manually, they are sending it by bulk so don't trust just because you have a very long email address, you're not going to get spam emails, the best option is not to open emails coming from spam.

I guess that I am just so lucky then that my emails weren't barraged by those spams. I have heard of these bulks and stuff, I think these bulks that you're talking about are being sold by hackers who got the data to other scammers like scam call centers and phishing email scammers right?

Having long email address wont be effective if you use it on various online services. Once you use it on random online services where you need to put your email address, it is recorded and the chance for you to get the spam emails is started.

There are many ways to get our emails, scammers usually offer something attractive such as giveaway where you need to enter with your email address. The most effective ways to avoid getting scammed by spam emails that may contain phishing link is "AVOID" it. Do not even open any emails that sent by someone or by a service you do not even know.