Hackers definitely lack empathy for victims of gruesome events, and they find it appropriate to exploit devastating tragedies for their own benefits. When Hurricane Harvey caused catastrophic disasters in Texas, scammers quickly decided to use this as an opportunity for a new spam campaign. In August, 2017, devious crooks sent around email messages, asking for generous people to donate money to various charities, providing support for the victims of Hurricane Harvey. This time, without any remorse, hackers have decided to take advantage of the Crisis in Syria.
RansSiria ransomware says that the received ransoms will be sent to refugees in Syria
Even though we have stated a clear decline in ransomware projects, this does not mean that crypto-viruses have disappeared for good. Variants like RansSiria infection prove that extortionists find new ways of convincing people to pay the ransoms. Since they might actually believe that gathered funds will be sent to Syrian refugees, they may be more eager to pay.
However, you can be sure that no donations will be sent to people in need. Instead, hackers will gladly take every received cent, and won’t feel any regret for their insulting lies. RansSiria virus is said to be a newer version of WannaPeace infection. Both of them target Brazilian people, and this is clear from the ransom note (written in the Brazilian language).
RansSiria virus won’t send donations to Syrian refugees: do not pay the ransoms!
Once the RansSiria ransomware (similar to WannaCry from the ransom note) infiltrates into an operating system, the victim will surely notice a fake Word window, displaying the demands for a ransom. Before this message is shown, some of the victims’ files are going to be infected. All of these details make the infection seem like an everyday ransomware. However, it was surprising for researchers to learn that hackers are using the Syrian refugee crisis to their advantage.
To make the ransom more emotional, crooks explain that thousands of Syrian people are suffering from deprivation, hunger, and awful living conditions. Therefore, the hackers explain that by paying the ransom you will not only getting your files back, you will be sending a contribution to the suffering Syrian people. In order to convince more people, crooks will also display heart-breaking videos and photos of the struggles of Syrian people. Even though all of this sounds very tragic, the creators of RansSiria are only masquerading as selfless people. In reality, they won’t think twice before keeping every received ransom to themselves.
