Many in the digital security community are coming together to combat malicious actors during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global outbreak. One of the most visible of these new efforts is the COVID-19 CTI League. Made up of approximately 400 volunteers living in approximately 40 countries, the COVID-19 CTI League is working to block attackers from health care organizations and other medical facilities at this juncture. Reuters reports that the threat intelligence collective is also looking to preventing lowly phishers and fraudsters from capitalizing on people’s fears surrounding the outbreak.

It’s not an easy fight. New coronavirus-themed phishing attacks and scams spring up daily. But raising awareness is key. Towards that end, let’s discuss some of the scams that made headlines this week.

BlackNET Distributed by Fake “Corona AV”

Digital fraudsters revealed their true colors in the first scam in this week’s roundup. Detected by Malwarebytes, the ruse began when spam campaigns tricked users into visiting a website entitled “Corona Antivirus -World’s best protection.” Yes, the malicious actors would have had you actually believe that antivirus could protect you against COVID-19!

A screenshot of “Corona Antivirus -World’s best protection.” (Source: Malwarebytes)

The nonsense didn’t end there. As the website went on to add:

Our scientists from Harvard University have been working on a special AI development to combat the virus using a windows app. Your PC actively protects you against the Coronaviruses (Cov) while the app is running.

In the event someone actually fell for this ploy and installed the program on their computer, the fake app infected the device and enslaved it as a bot for the BlackNET botnet.

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