‼️👀 BE ALERT: Crypto Scams Taking Advantage of Ukraine Conflict

Avast warns that criminals have begun, in their sorry but entirely foreseeable way, to exploit people's sympathies for those suffering in Ukraine. "As cybercriminals seek to take advantage of the chaos," the company writes in its blog, "we have tracked in the last 48 hours a number of scammers who are tricking people out of money by pretending they are Ukrainians in desperate need of financial help. In the past, we have seen similar scams for people stuck while traveling or looking for love. Unfortunately, these attackers do not operate ethically and will use any opportunity to get money out of people willing to help others in need. What’s suspicious is the immediate mention of Bitcoin, as well as the usernames that consist only of letters and numbers."

This kind of social engineering hasn’t been confined to any one channel, Avast points out. “There have also been reports of similar scams spreading on TikTok and other social media sites. In general, we strongly advise not to send any money to unknown people directly, especially in any form of cryptocurrency, as it is virtually impossible to deduce if it is a person in need or a scammer.”

> > If you're moved to help, do so through well-known, credible, trusted organizations, and only through those organization's official websites, not through links shared in social media.

It’s sad that criminals would seek to take advantage of people’s best intentions during a time of crisis, but such is the criminal world. New-school security awareness training can enable your employees to thwart both sophisticated and rudimentary phishing attacks.