SECURITY
NEWS
Cybercriminals are using
pandemic to trick vulnerable
Anna Collard, Managing Director of KnowBe4 Africa,
says cybercriminals are using the pandemic to scam
desperate people.
In the US, a popular job placement agency was used as the hunting
grounds for scammers looking to take advantage of people in
desperate need of work. The scam was simple – set up an alluring
job offer, get victims to enter highly sensitive personal information,
use the information to either draw the victims into personalised
scams or to sell on to fraudsters. The entire con was designed to
prey on the vulnerabilities of those most affected by the pandemic.
According to Anna Collard, Managing Director of KnowBe4 Africa, this
is just the tip of the iceberg.
“It is truly awful how scammers are using social media and
phishing campaigns to take advantage of misfortune,” she adds.
“Those who are most likely to fall for these scams are those who are
the most vulnerable and really need the money that’s being stolen
from them. These scams are playing into people’s fear and anxiety to
trick them into making decisions they normally wouldn’t make.”
It’s a dark kind of clever and it’s permeated all countries and
continents. In Africa, a scam used a fake social media profile of
Margaret Kenyatta, Kenya’s president’s wife, to trick people into
paying money to benefit from a Coronavirus relief fund. The scam
asked people to pay KES 599 to register for the fund and the money
went directly into fraudster bank accounts. There are variations of
this across the continent.
“There are numerous WhatsApp scams currently circulating,”
says Collard. “They invite people to join amazing investment
schemes that sound fantastic but are actually phishing scams and
chancers looking to take what money they can during the crisis.
There is a trend of scammers shifting their attention to mobile
platforms as people tend to be more aware on email than they
are on their mobile phones and many of Africa’s mobile users are
exposed to the Internet for the first time”
In South Africa, the pandemic has seen many people register for
grants from the Social Security Agency (SASSA) and scammers are
pretending that they’re from the agency, getting people to pay a fake
‘registration’ fee. SASSA has been alerted to the con and has told
citizens that the registration is free, but there are still people who
need the grants and who don’t know what to look out for to spot a
fake. It’s easy for them to fall for scammers asking them to pay to get
their service or share their personal information.
“Older scams are also being repurposed for the pandemic,” said
Collard. “The voucher scheme that uses the names of well-known
retail brands has recently come back. This asks people to register for
fake vouchers and thereby hand over a ton of personal information
because they’re being promised extra discounts and savings because
of COVID-19. People are more vulnerable because of fear and stress,
and the desperation of losing money, so they’re falling for these
scams because they want, and need, the help.”
Anna Collard, Managing
Director of KnowBe4 Africa
These scams are playing into people’s fear and anxiety
to trick them into making decisions they normally
wouldn’t make.
Collard advises that people need to be more careful and aware
than ever before. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. •
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS
INTELLIGENT
TECH CHANNELS Issue 32
13