Cybercriminals Exploit Morocco Earthquake with Fake Donation Scams, Experts Warn

Cédric Pernet, Senior Threat Researcher at the specialized company Trend Micro, warns Internet users of the risk of donation scams for the victims of the earthquake in Morocco. Cybercriminals have designed online scams to deceive and extort people wishing to make donations. They thus registered two domains: croixrougefrancaise.fr, which redirects the Internet user to alerteseisme.fr and used the term "earthquake alert" in reference to the earthquake that mourned Morocco, reveals Trend Micro in a report, specifying that the two domain names were registered by the same user. Similarly, the same email address and the same phone number were used to register the two domains.

The website was designed using Shopify, a platform that allows users to manage their own online store. Its content is simple. "Only one type of product is available: the fraternity tent. The product description is written in a way to elicit pity or compassion from readers. Note that the photo used by the scammers is also found on an AliExpress product page," the report says. The malicious actor provided the Paris address. An address that exists, as it has already been used by more than 400 other companies "for the purpose of domiciling a business or as a registered postal address," we are told.