How to spot scams like "Foundation For Humanitarian Work" email scam

What kind of scam is "Foundation For Humanitarian Work"?

We have examined this email and determined that it is a typical inheritance scam. Usually, scammers send such emails to trick recipients into parting with their money and (or) sharing their credit card details or other sensitive information. Emails of this type should be ignored.

More about the "Foundation For Humanitarian Work" scam email

Scammers behind this email pretending to be a 68-year-old widow, Mrs. Angela Edward, who is seeking a trustworthy individual to help her fulfill her humanitarian desires. Inheriting a substantial sum of £5.500,000.00 from her late husband, she intends to donate the funds towards helping those in need, both nationally and internationally.

Diagnosed with serious lung and breast cancer, Mrs. Edward recognizes her days are numbered, which inspires her to make a difference in the world. She values faith, humanity, solidarity, respect, and trust and hopes to hear back from someone who shares her principles.

This scam letter offers to consider setting up a foundation for humanitarian work with donated funds. Scammers could be using it to trick recipients into sending money (e.g., paying fake fees) and providing personal information. Individuals who fall for such scams never receive any money.

Threat Summary:

Name	Foundation For Humanitarian Work Email Scam
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud
Fake Claim	Recipient is offered to receive funds
Disguise	Letter from a woman named Mrs. Angela Edward who inherited a large sum of money
Symptoms	Unauthorized online purchases, changed online account passwords, identity theft, illegal access of the computer.
Distribution methods	Deceptive emails, rogue online pop-up ads, search engine poisoning techniques, misspelled domains.
Damage	Loss of sensitive private information, monetary loss, identity theft.
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Similar scam emails in general

Scam emails usually are disguised as letters from real people or entities. Their purpose is to lure unsuspecting recipients into providing credit card details, ID card information, social security numbers, or other details or sending money. The extracted information is used to steal identities or money, hijack online accounts, etc.

A couple of examples of scam emails are "Lottolore Email Scam", "Big Sale Of Bitcoin And Ethereum Email Scam", and "Transfer Profit Funds Email Scam". Threat actors also use email to trick recipients into infecting their computers.

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Threat actors succeed when recipients download and execute malware by themselves. Malware is activated when recipients open a malicious attachment or click a link presented in an email message. Typically, cybercriminals use malicious MS Office or PDF documents, executables, JavaScript files, archives, ISO files, and other files to distribute malware.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Do not open any attachments in an email unless you are aware of their contents. If you receive an attachment (or link) from a known sender, but it was unexpected or irrelevant, reach out to them before opening it. If you receive an attachment or link from an unknown sender, simply delete the email.

Also, download software from official pages and stores only. Avoid downloads from other sources (e.g., P2P networks, third-party downloaders, free file hosting sites, etc.). Do not trust ads and links on shady websites. Keep the operating system and installed software up to date. Use reputed antivirus software.

If you've already opened malicious attachments, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate infiltrated malware.

Text presented in the "Foundation For Humanitarian Work" email letter:

Subject: GREETINGS MY DEAR

Hello Dearest,

With your permission I want to present to you my sincere initiatives and proposals. Please let
 this not sound strange to you because I am not asking you for money. I got your email contact
as I was in serious search for an honest and trustworthy person in your country.

In the spirit of faith, solidarity, humanity and common sense appeal to your wisdom and kindness
 as a human of this planet with the request friendship sustains me if you consider setting up a
foundation for humanitarian work with (£5.500,000.00) Five million Five Hundred Thousand British
Pounds inherited from my late husband who was an industrialist. I decided to donate these funds
because I have no child and my days are numbered according to my physician who always examines my
health because I was diagnosed with serious lung and breast cancer and will be going for my third
surgical operation soon, I want you to use these funds nationally and internationally to people
without hope, against which we must not be careless.

I'm Mrs. Angela Edward, I am 68 years old and childless, always cheerful with a desire to do good
and give to those who need help. The principles which I rely on in life are faith, humanity,
solidarity, respect and trust. Please always put me in your daily prayers so that God will grant
more life to my living and confirm these funds into your hand.

I'm hoping to hear a positive email from you soon, for more details on how to move forward for the
transfer of these funds to you. But your delays in replying to this message will create an avenue
of searching for a serious person that will understand the nature of my health situation and handle
this fund transaction to the glory of God. Please reply to me urgently for more details.

Remain blessed with your family.

Best Regards
Mrs. Angela Edward

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Quick menu:

• What is Foundation For Humanitarian Work inheritance scam?
• Types of malicious emails.
• How to spot a malicious email?
• What to do if you fell for an email scam?

Types of malicious emails:

Phishing Emails

Most commonly, cybercriminals use deceptive emails to trick Internet users into giving away their sensitive private information, for example, login information for various online services, email accounts, or online banking information.

Such attacks are called phishing. In a phishing attack, cybercriminals usually send an email message with some popular service logo (for example, Microsoft, DHL, Amazon, Netflix), create urgency (wrong shipping address, expired password, etc.), and place a link which they hope their potential victims will click on.

After clicking the link presented in such email message, victims are redirected to a fake website that looks identical or extremely similar to the original one. Victims are then asked to enter their password, credit card details, or some other information that gets stolen by cybercriminals.

Emails with Malicious Attachments

Another popular attack vector is email spam with malicious attachments that infect users' computers with malware. Malicious attachments usually carry trojans that are capable of stealing passwords, banking information, and other sensitive information.

In such attacks, cybercriminals' main goal is to trick their potential victims into opening an infected email attachment. To achieve this goal, email messages usually talk about recently received invoices, faxes, or voice messages.

If a potential victim falls for the lure and opens the attachment, their computers get infected, and cybercriminals can collect a lot of sensitive information.

While it's a more complicated method to steal personal information (spam filters and antivirus programs usually detect such attempts), if successful, cybercriminals can get a much wider array of data and can collect information for a long period of time.

Sextortion Emails

This is a type of phishing. In this case, users receive an email claiming that a cybercriminal could access the webcam of the potential victim and has a video recording of one's masturbation.

To get rid of the video, victims are asked to pay a ransom (usually using Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency). Nevertheless, all of these claims are false - users who receive such emails should ignore and delete them.

How to spot a malicious email?

While cyber criminals try to make their lure emails look trustworthy, here are some things that you should look for when trying to spot a phishing email:

• Check the sender's ("from") email address: Hover your mouse over the "from" address and check if it's legitimate. For example, if you received an email from Microsoft, be sure to check if the email address is @microsoft.com and not something suspicious like @m1crosoft.com, @microsfot.com, @account-security-noreply.com, etc.
• Check for generic greetings: If the greeting in the email is "Dear user", "Dear @youremail.com", "Dear valued customer", this should raise suspiciousness. Most commonly, companies call you by your name. Lack of this information could signal a phishing attempt.
• Check the links in the email: Hover your mouse over the link presented in the email, if the link that appears seems suspicious, don't click it. For example, if you received an email from Microsoft and the link in the email shows that it will go to firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0... you shouldn't trust it. It's best not to click any links in the emails but to visit the company website that sent you the email in the first place.
• Don't blindly trust email attachments: Most commonly, legitimate companies will ask you to log in to their website and to view any documents there; if you received an email with an attachment, it's a good idea to scan it with an antivirus application. Infected email attachments are a common attack vector used by cybercriminals.

To minimise the risk of opening phishing and malicious emails we recommend using Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows. 

Example of a spam email:

What to do if you fell for an email scam?

• If you clicked on a link in a phishing email and entered your password - be sure to change your password as soon as possible. Usually, cybercriminals collect stolen credentials and then sell them to other groups that use them for malicious purposes. If you change your password in a timely manner, there's a chance that criminals won't have enough time to do any damage.
• If you entered your credit card information - contact your bank as soon as possible and explain the situation. There's a good chance that you will need to cancel your compromised credit card and get a new one.
• If you see any signs of identity theft - you should immediately contact the Federal Trade Commission. This institution will collect information about your situation and create a personal recovery plan.
• If you opened a malicious attachment - your computer is probably infected, you should scan it with a reputable antivirus application. For this purpose, we recommend using Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows.
• Help other Internet users - report phishing emails to Anti-Phishing Working Group, FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, National Fraud Information Center and U.S. Department of Justice.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Why did I receive this email?

As this letter states, the recipient is the only person who received this letter. However, it is likely that tens or hundreds of people received the same letter. Typically, scam emails are not personal.

I have provided my personal information when tricked by this email, what should I do?

If you have given out any login information (e.g., usernames and passwords), change all passwords right away. If other personal information, such as credit card information or ID card details, have been shared, contact the appropriate authorities as soon as possible.

I have downloaded and opened a file attached to this email, is my computer infected?

If the attachment was an executable file, it is possible that your system is infected. If it was a document file like a PDF or a Word document, the risk might be lower as simply opening it may not necessarily lead to malware infecting your system.

I have read the email but didn't open the attachment, is my computer infected?

Just opening an email to view it is safe.

Will Combo Cleaner remove malware infections that were present in email attachment?

Yes, Combo Cleaner has the ability to detect and remove a wide range of malware infections. However, it is important to note that advanced malware can hide deep within a system, so it is recommended to run a full system scan to ensure complete detection and removal.

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