The vaccination push provides a vital shot in the arm for the world’s battle against the pandemic, but it’s also a topic ripe for exploitation by fraudsters and purveyors of misinformation
The rollouts of COVID-19 vaccines are steadily gaining speed, sparking hope that we may see the end of the pandemic and return to normal life sooner rather than later. This, however, has not escaped the notice of enterprising scammers who would like to cash in on the vaccine distribution effort by using fake offers and spewing out fraudulent emails.
Let’s dive in and look at some of the campaigns where cybercriminals attempt to relieve unsuspecting netizens of their personal information and money or spread baseless claims about the vaccines.
Fraudulent business offers
One common tactic involves offering various ways people could capitalize on the pandemic and vaccine rollout. These scams typically focus either on the COVID-19 vaccines themselves, or on the tech used to manufacture or store them.
In the first example below, the cybercriminal impersonates an employee of a pharmaceutical company, implying that it is somehow involved in the manufacturing efforts of the vaccines. To foster some degree of trust, the would-be con artist name-drops Whitman Laboratories, a real British pharmaceutical company that is not involved in such scurrilous behavior. Further, this scammer also opts for an encrypted email provider instead of the usual fraudster favorites Gmail or Hotmail.
Beyond these two points, the rest of the email bears all the hallmarks of a scam – it’s sparse on details, probably to prompt a reply, and has gramma ..
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