Kaspersky Finds Fraud Under The Guise Of Legal Aid Donation For Pavel Durov

Illustration of the Telegram application (photo: Kaspersky)

JAKARTA - Kaspersky researchers recently discovered a new fraudulent campaign, which took advantage of news about the arrest of Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov at French airport.

In this scam, the fraudsters launched a spam campaign, distributing fake emails and posing as human rights organizations raising funds for Durov's legal defenses and global awareness campaigns.

They urged recipients to contribute to the goal by donating to one of several specific crypto wallets, including BTC, ETH, and TRX.

But in reality, the victims ended up losing their money because the scammers, and Pavel Durov's team have yet to announce any official fundraising efforts.

To bypass spam filters, Kaspersky found that fraudsters changed their words, avoided repetition, and used synonyms such as "helping" and "supporting" or "damping" and "raising funds."

In addition, the name of the funding organization in question also changes every time there is an email claiming to represent the Human Rights Defenders Network (HRDN), while the others disguise themselves as the Digital Rights Advocacy Network (DRAN).

To avoid becoming a victim of this scam, email security expert at Kaspersky Andrey Kovtun suggested that everyone should think more critically and re-examine before sending donation money anywhere.

"Always rely on official communication and verified news sources. Never trust email written in a primitive language and format, especially if the official team has not announced any fundraising efforts," Andrey added.