Scammers sent emails claiming to be from the United Nations Foundation, in an attempt to collect recipients' personal information.
However, there is no malware involved, as the scammers rely solely on the recipient's reaction to send back the required data, which could be exploited in fraud, although it is not excluded that greater risks lurk.
However, there is a lure designed to persuade users to respond, consisting of an offer of $4.67 million / €5 million, “to help start a business, grow an existing business, or give someone out there a better life,” as stated in the malicious email.
By pure chance, the recipient of the email happens to be the lucky winner of the draw, which is supposedly based on random selection.
As security researcher Christopher Boyd from Malwarebytes in a blog post on Wednesday, this is just one variation of the “419” scam that has been spotted in various forms for at least a year.
In order to make all the necessary arrangements for transferring the money, the scammers ask for the victim's full name and the company they work for, physical address, telephone number, occupation, age, and marital status.
This information could be used to contact the potential victim to make the scam look like a legitimate business. In another message, the scammers may ask for additional, more sensitive information, such as bank account information.
Alternatively, scammers may ask the victim to pay an advance amount as costs associated with the money transfer, before receiving the winnings.
Some users will have no problem recognizing the message as fake. On the other hand, the United Nations Foundation email address has been spoofed, and the scammers used the name of Richard S. Parnell, Chief Operating Officer of the United Nations Foundation, to sign the message, in an attempt to make the email more convincing.
