Fake online humanitarian campaigns following the earthquakes in Turkey

According to a cyber security company, most of the fraudulent messages originate from IP addresses in Pakistan. Thieves use a fictitious Ukrainian charity to lure victims. Upon closer investigation, experts discovered that it was originally founded to provide assistance to victims of the war in Ukraine, but it seems that it has temporarily changed its mission and is targeting donations for earthquake victims.

The domain hosting the alleged foundation was created on October 3 last year and is already being detected by anti-spam and anti-fraud filters of cyber security companies. In another deceptive campaign, cyber attackers claim to represent a global charity that works with UNICEF and solicits donations to support children and families in both countries. Unlike the other scams we've seen so far, recipients are asked to email the organization for more details on how to donate.

Through this type of interaction, users not only validate their email address, but also expose themselves to more attacks in the future. In addition, they risk providing additional personal and financial information. Those who receive such messages, or see such ads, should be careful about the content of the message, how it is written, because the messages are poorly worded, with visible grammatical errors.

People who want to help those in need can head to reputable charities through official pages that allow payments.

Translated by: Radu Matei