14 DAY TRIAL // Cybercriminals are launching a new scam to take advantage of the release of Kanye West's Donda album by distributing malicious fake downloads on the Internet, according to Tech Republic.
Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky proactively studied the event to see if threat actors were spreading any malware across the Internet. They emphasized that one of the scams is to target the release of highly anticipated media (movies, music), as they can place the malicious code in fake files that can be easily downloaded.
This particular scam attempt involves the uploading of fake malicious files to the Internet that are similar to those that were identified prior to the introduction of Black Widow. Kanye's fans are given a link to download the album and then asked to participate in a survey to confirm they are not robots. Afterwards, customers are redirected to a website that offers several Bitcoin generating scams.
Kaspersky Lab detected the following two files as being infected with adware and masquerading as the Donda album in order to trick Kanye's fans: "Download-File-KanyeWestDONDA320.zip_88481.msi and Kanye West _ DONDA (Explicit) (2021) Mp3 320kbps [PMEDIA] __ - Downloader.exe".
Kanye's fans are easily fooled into falling for the scam
In addition to the usual fraudulent downloads, Kaspersky discovered a variety of different shady websites that use different strategies to try to trick customers into clicking on fake links, providing personal information, and otherwise revealing their sensitive data.
In a warning about scams around the release of Black Widow, Kaspersky security expert Anton V. Ivanov explained that scammers and cyber criminals are taking advantage of the excitement, enthusiasm, and inattention of many people as they try to find a way to get their hands of the new content.
To avoid becoming a victim of such scams, it is advisable to carefully check the download links, don't click shady URLs and always download from reputable sources.