Recent Corona Virus Scams

[Charles-Tim]

I read on the cointelegraph today about how scammers are using the recent pandemic to scam people using phishing, malicious malware attack and other scam tactics to scam people. I think this is well informative and worth peoples attention. That is why I brought it here on this forum. There are major things that I read:

1. Scammers are using fake donation platforms to trick victims to pay bitcoin.
2. Use of phishing attack tricks claming to sell products for residents of specific affected areas. They claim to sell hand sanitizers and face mask and demands high price but will not deliver the items.
3. Using phishing attack to steal private data or to install malware or ransomware into crypto wallet devices.
4. Also, hospitals are not left out, victims of cyberattack in hospital are willing to pay to regain access to hospital compromised equipments by cyber attackers.
5. A new ransomeware called CoronaVirus was discovered on malicious websites. A given amount of bitcoin will be demanded by the scammers in order to unlock back their devices.
6. Lastly, the use of corona virus map that infect users with malware and also using it to get access to passwords and other sensitive information stored on the website browsers.

This is the link to the news on cointelegraph is very helpful and I will like you to read the news in full details.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/beware-scammers-are-out-for-crypto-amid-the-coronavirus-pandemic

Let us all inform our people of this cyber attacks from the scammers, do not think only wallet owners can be affected,  some cyberattacks can also steal our banking or other sensitive information if you read the number 7above.  We should be safe and also handle our wallets and cryptocurrencies  as if scammers are always at work.

I have written some articles here on this forum about how to protect ourselves from scammers and about how to secure our crypto wallets. The two articles are well informative. Only the donation scamer tactic was not included as all these scam tactics above are what we wallet owners know about and avoiding daily. You will see the two articles helping using these links:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5232577.msg54021683#msg54021683

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5235930.msg54107672#msg54107672

And lastly, let us tell our family, friends about this scams because not we only wallet owners can be affected. Stay safe.

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[davis196]

In my country,the scammers are calling old people on the phone and telling them that their relative has been infected with coronavirus,so they have to donate a certain amount for his/her medical treatment.This doesn't involve cryptocurrency payments,but it's a nasty scam nevertheless,because old people are naive and can get panicked very easy.
The fight with the hackers/scammers will continue despite the pandemic.

[sunsilk]

They create apps and capture victims once they have downloaded and installed the app. And the next what happens are the things that you mentioned. People are looking for ways to watchout the situation of the world for this pandemic.

But before installing, they have to verify the source and its authenticity. Not everything that they see are legit, they need to check it and everyone must be aware that scammers don't take rest even if we are in this dire situation.

[Akiko]

In my country,the scammers are calling old people on the phone and telling them that their relative has been infected with coronavirus,so they have to donate a certain amount for his/her medical treatment.This doesn't involve cryptocurrency payments,but it's a nasty scam nevertheless,because old people are naive and can get panicked very easy.
The fight with the hackers/scammers will continue despite the pandemic.

how come that you will be easily fool with that scheme even they say it to you , you still need verified this situation you will contact them directly in thier number and social media accout and if that was true.

You will never send any money to people even they said that its part of your family without verifyng it.

To older people you need to always watch thier move every time and also remind them about this scheme so if ever this things happen they know how to react to that matter.

[Assface16678]

Today the virus is still continuously increasing the number of the infected and one of the things we need is to avoid and take care on our selves but there are many people trying to scam others by just telling to others they are trying to raising some funds just for the people getting affected by the virus and some of them are not true and legit it is just a scam trying to abuse the situation of other people, for now, we must be aware of the platform or the link they are trying to promote because some of those are just phishing websites that are trying to attempt to get the information of your device also it is better to make a background check to be more aware to avoid getting more risk even you are want to help.

[Jating]

Thanks for the fair warning, specially that we are under a crisis, even those scammers will not rest and have taken advantage of the covid-19 and created a lot of fake websites trying to lure a lot of people. So all of us need to be very vigilant as there are reports of people losing their money on such scam like this one.

PLEASE BEWARE - 14,000 XRP stolen from Ledger. So we really need to educate ourselves and people around us that they need to be very careful and cautious.

[Fiyor]

While most people suffering from quarantine, there are people who earn on coronovirus. So in my city there are no masks in pharmacies, while disposable masks that work 2 hours on the market sell for $ 0.25 per mask. In general, since it is impossible to buy a mask in a pharmacy, it is better to sew it. In our pharmacies, even pharmacists have masks hand-sewn from gauze.

[Jako0203]

this is the main reason why we can not trust any site that are using bitcoin in payment, because if you get scammed no one can help you, no one can recover the money you've lost, you can not determine if this site is a phishing site, because they use everything to make it realistic so that everyone will believe that the money will go to the corona virus affected countries

[Exolix]

every day a lot of news, the reliability of which people simply do not have time to check. people are in a panic. and scammers use it.

In my country, there were cases when people in special suits and respirators came into the house and said that they needed to carry out anti-virus treatment of the room. The homeowners believed them and let robbers in

[kryptqnick]

That's a very relevant topic. While scam has always been around, in the situation of uncertainty it's even easier to manipulate people. Just yesterday I watched a great Vox video explaining a huge vulnerability related to emails. Turns out, sometimes it's easy to fake the official corporate email address, and this very much holds for the official WHO addresses. They haven't set up the protection protocol (DMARC), so it's not hard for scammers to send emails pretending to be the World Health Organization and ask for money (including BTC donations), and the receiver might get confused when the sender's email ends with @who.int. Here's the link to the video in case you want to learn more. Be vigilant!

[DeathAngel]

If it wasn’t the Corona Virus it’d be something else, there are dishonest, lying scammers in walks of life. It isn’t just in crypto, I’m sure many of us have been scammed on Paypal for example. Just keep your wits about you.

[Welsh]

While most people suffering from quarantine, there are people who earn on coronovirus. So in my city there are no masks in pharmacies, while disposable masks that work 2 hours on the market sell for $ 0.25 per mask. In general, since it is impossible to buy a mask in a pharmacy, it is better to sew it. In our pharmacies, even pharmacists have masks hand-sewn from gauze.

During a pandemic, or any crisis whether that is locally or worldwide I would like to see people banding together, and donating their contributions instead of looking to profit off of it. For example, local stores were increasing the price of their "vital" products, and there were masses of people over buying products, and trying to sell it off. There was an example of this in America where a guy purchased a huge amount of water bottles. I believe in the end all of those were donated, but if I remember the report correctly he was originally planning on profiting off of them.

The same goes for scams. The people who are capable of pulling off scams usually are the people who pray on the weak, and needy. That's why these scammers are successful in what they do. It's an unfortunate fact to admit too, but Bitcoin is no different.

[Utoy101]

In my country,the scammers are calling old people on the phone and telling them that their relative has been infected with coronavirus,so they have to donate a certain amount for his/her medical treatment.This doesn't involve cryptocurrency payments,but it's a nasty scam nevertheless,because old people are naive and can get panicked very easy.
The fight with the hackers/scammers will continue despite the pandemic.

Same here, seems we came from the same side. I wonder when such people that scam people will repent from their evil deeds and make this world a better place. The issue of people orchestrating scam approaches is increasing everyday around here from calling people to tell them their credit and bank accounts are having issues and they need some confidential information inorder to be able to rectify the issue to scammers impersonating project developers to scam people in telegram and other crypto social media. It's time for everyone to tighten up their games and be more at alert cause scam strategies do increase during pandemics

[KrisAlex18]

That's true, scammers use this current situation to deceive people, they use some application to fool people, some made a donation saying that it is for all the people that has been affected by the virus, they collect bitcoins from others, but based on their post you can see that it is not thst so professional, they don't have the credibility to handle those donation.

For sure those donation will only for them and they use this virus so there will be someone who may give him biycoin or any cryptocurrency.

[Oasisman]

~snip~

During a pandemic, or any crisis whether that is locally or worldwide I would like to see people banding together, and donating their contributions instead of looking to profit off of it. For example, local stores were increasing the price of their "vital" products, and there were masses of people over buying products, and trying to sell it off. There was an example of this in America where a guy purchased a huge amount of water bottles. I believe in the end all of those were donated, but if I remember the report correctly he was originally planning on profiting off of them.

The same goes for scams. The people who are capable of pulling off scams usually are the people who pray on the weak, and needy. That's why these scammers are successful in what they do. It's an unfortunate fact to admit too, but Bitcoin is no different.

There are always 2 kind of people in every occasion. First are those who are willing to help others, and Second are those who do anything to help themselves if it means to monetize the situation, by no hesitation they will do it.
I have witnessed how some people in my country hoard as much alcohol and N95 facemasks just before the pandemic become worse, and sold it 2x or 3x the actual retail price. Luckily after a week or two authorities has been arresting these overpriced sellers.

While, collecting donations for fake charity is a common kind of scam not only in crypto space, but also with the other form of payment methods.

[htsy585]

Same here, seems we came from the same side. I wonder when such people that scam people will repent from their evil deeds and make this world a better place. The issue of people orchestrating scam approaches is increasing everyday around here from calling people to tell them their credit and bank accounts are having issues and they need some confidential information inorder to be able to rectify the issue to scammers impersonating project developers to scam people in telegram and other crypto social media. It's time for everyone to tighten up their games and be more at alert cause scam strategies do increase during pandemics

Dear friend, those sort of scams are everywhere and just as you suggested, i agree with everyone has got the responsibility of tighten up their games.  Lots of them scammers will appear to provide healp due to the current pandemic and virtually everyone looking up to one another but insead device a means to scam them. I think global crisis is always a good period for the bad people to make more money.  And again, people need to be less greedy and stay far away from any financial investments options that promises high return during this period

[Oceat]

If it wasn’t the Corona Virus it’d be something else, there are dishonest, lying scammers in walks of life. It isn’t just in crypto, I’m sure many of us have been scammed on Paypal for example. Just keep your wits about you.

It always happens no matter what crisis or tragedy we are in there are people who really like to do the bad deeds just to get what they want. People should know their rights and be wise enough not to support those who scam people. People should have to know how to distinguish the legitimacy of the charity before giving something because we are dealing with a real money here.

[Twinkledoe]

Scammers love this kind of situation, sad to say, but they don't really care, they are going to hit anytime of the day as long as they see some vulnerability, like the pandemic. Just look at how many fake covid-19 related websites right now. Even projects are raising money in the name of coronacoin. However, those crooks are going to pull scams and the only weapon against those people are to teach us and others. If you want to make donations, then start locally, no need to send it through bogus websites.

Exactly! If you really wanna help, start from your neighbourhood. More than likely, there is someone that needed much of your help rather than these scam sites. If they are promising you money in return, don't believe such thing, they are only created to rip money from gullible users. Scammers will always be here so it is your job to avoid them or warn others if you find one. And here in the forum, I think all corona related projects are scam as all of them are anonymous. If they do have good intentions, they will reveal themselves to the public.

[camito]

I read on the cointelegraph today about how scammers are using the recent pandemic to scam people using phishing, malicious malware attack and other scam tactics to scam people. I think this is well informative and worth peoples attention. That is why I brought it here on this forum. There are major things that I read:

1. Scammers are using fake donation platforms to trick victims to pay bitcoin.
2. Use of phishing attack tricks claming to sell products for residents of specific affected areas. They claim to sell hand sanitizers and face mask and demands high price but will not deliver the items.
3. Using phishing attack to steal private data or to install malware or ransomware into crypto wallet devices.
4. Also, hospitals are not left out, victims of cyberattack in hospital are willing to pay to regain access to hospital compromised equipments by cyber attackers.
5. A new ransomeware called CoronaVirus was discovered on malicious websites. A given amount of bitcoin will be demanded by the scammers in order to unlock back their devices.
6. Lastly, the use of corona virus map that infect users with malware and also using it to get access to passwords and other sensitive information stored on the website browsers.

This is the link to the news on cointelegraph is very helpful and I will like you to read the news in full details.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/beware-scammers-are-out-for-crypto-amid-the-coronavirus-pandemic

Let us all inform our people of this cyber attacks from the scammers, do not think only wallet owners can be affected,  some cyberattacks can also steal our banking or other sensitive information if you read the number 7above.  We should be safe and also handle our wallets and cryptocurrencies  as if scammers are always at work.

I have written some articles here on this forum about how to protect ourselves from scammers and about how to secure our crypto wallets. The two articles are well informative. Only the donation scamer tactic was not included as all these scam tactics above are what we wallet owners know about and avoiding daily. You will see the two articles helping using this link:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5232577.msg54021683#msg54021683

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5235930.msg54107672#msg54107672

And lastly, let us tell our family, friends about this scams because not we only wallet owners can be affected. Stay safe.

Way to go for sharing this very informative article. Many of us may have been in the digital world for so long yet many people are still put onto a seat where they are being a victim by not being protective enough on their personal information. We become a target of scammers because they know that most people are really greedy for money or moreover, just someone who isn't educated enough. We must protect our personal data at all costs and do ways in which we can't be attacked by scammers. This information could also be shared to other individuals. Our investments, our bank details, our identity are vulnerable if and only if we won't take action.

[alexeev.tosha0109@yandex.]

It's disgusting that some people consider the pandemic as a new way of earning money. Although, cyber scamming isn't widely spread in my country, there are many people trying to make money out of others misery. Often they sell silly anti-coronavirus staff like badges, pendants or useless not medical masks which can't protect you from the virus.