Forget about that Nigerian prince that NEEDS your help, there is a new cryptocurrency scam out there, trying to convince people that the Queen Elizabeth II needs you to save UK’s economy after Brexit.
The cryptocurrency scam is sent as an actual letter from the Queen’s private secretary, Edward Young. Yes, people receive real paper mail that claim to be from Buckingham Palace.
Save UK’s Economy after Brexit!
The letter mentions that the Queen needs the help of some individuals to lend the royal house some cash to help the country’s economy after brexit. That sum scammers ask for is somewhere between 450,000 and £2,000,000 in BTC.
Paul Ridden, the CEO of Smarttask, a technology and management firm from the UK, also got the letter and wrote:
“I always had the feeling that she would turn to me in an emergency to save the country.”
The funny part of this letter is that it asks the ‘victim’ to keep the letter anonymous so that it does not go “viral.” Ironically, after Ridden posted it on LinkedIn, it soon became viral.
The letter adds a bitcoin address, and until now, the address shows that it only received some nominal amounts, which means nobody fell for the scam.
The Snail Mail Phishing Attempt
In an interview with IT PRO, KnowBe4’s Javvad Malik admitted that it was an interesting new way of phishing attempt, since it came through post, but it does resemble the features of an email phising attempt:
“There are some grammatical errors and inconsistencies in how a real letter from the Queen would read. Beyond that, the mail tries to instill a sense of urgency as well as promising high rewards.”
He concluded that there are many scams that use major events, such as Brexit, or even natural disaster to exploit them for their own good. We must be aware of them and not fall for the whole “save UK’s economy” thing or other such nonsense.
