Kaspersky Security Expert Finds Fraud Under The Guise Of Israel-Hamas Donations

Examples of fake pages under the guise of Israeli donations - Hamas (photo: Kaspersky)

JAKARTA - False charity scams often occur, often exploiting real disasters or emergencies. Unfortunately, the Israeli-Hamas conflict is the same.

Cybersecurity expert Kaspersky has identified a fraudulent campaign exploiting the Israeli-Hamas conflict, under the guise of donations that ultimately lead to theft of money.

The company is observing a surge in fraudulent emails written in English, which spuriously asks for donations for those affected by the conflict. The company's security solutions detect at least more than 540 such emails.

Kaspersky explained that attackers use advanced social engineering techniques to exploit the public's desire to help and try to lure potential victims into making false donations.

In this case, attackers disguise themselves as charitable organizations and use emotional language to persuade users to click on fraudulent website links, and then they will be asked to contribute.

According to Andrey Kovtun, security expert at Kaspersky, this scamper's email has several variations to avoid spam filters. For example, by changing the word 'assistance' to'support'.

In this email, the fraudster tries to create some text variations to avoid spam filters. In addition, they change the link and address of the sender. Strong cybersecurity solutions can prevent this tactic," added Kovtun.

Links used in this email will later direct victims to fraudulent websites. Fraudsters facilitate money transfers easily, offering options for various cryptocurrency transactions Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, to Litecoin.

Counterfeit sites often lack primary information about charitable providers, recipients, legitimacy documentation, or less transparent about the use of funds.

To that end, Kaspersky urges users to remain vigilant and take proactive steps to verify their donation recipients.