Beware of Cyber criminals pretending to be WHO & Trying To Cheat You

Criminals are disguising themselves as WHO to steal money or sensitive information. 

If you are contacted by a person or organization that appears to be from WHO, verify their authenticity before responding.

The World Health Organization will:

• never ask for your username or password to access safety information
• never email attachments you didn’t ask for
• never ask you to visit a link outside of www.who.int
• never charge money to apply for a job, register for a conference, or reserve a hotel
• never conduct lotteries or offer prizes, grants, certificates or funding through email.

The only call for donations WHO has issued is the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, which is linked to below.  Any other appeal for funding or donations that appears to be from WHO is a scam. 

COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund

• Beware that criminals use email, websites, phone calls, text messages, and even fax messages for their scams.
• You can verify if communication is legit by contacting WHO directly.
• https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/donate

Contact WHO

• https://www.who.int/about/who-we-are/contact-us

Report a scam

• https://www.who.int/about/report_scam/en/

Phishing: malicious emails appearing to be from WHO

• WHO is aware of suspicious email messages attempting to take advantage of the COVID-19 emergency.
• This fraudulent action is called phishing.

These “Phishing” emails appear to be from WHO, and will ask you to:

• give sensitive information, such as usernames or passwords
• click a malicious link
• open a malicious attachment.
• Using this method, criminals can install malware or steal sensitive information.

How to prevent phishing:

• Verify the sender by checking their email address. 
• Make sure the sender has an email address such as ‘person@who.int’ If there is anything other than ‘who.int’ after the ‘@’ symbol, this sender is not from WHO. 
• For example, WHO does not send email from addresses ending in ‘@who.com’ , ‘@who.org’ or ‘@who-safety.org’.
• Check the link before you click. 
• Make sure the link starts with ‘https://www.who.int’.  Better still, navigate to the WHO website directly, by typing ‘https://www.who.int’ into your browser.

Be careful when providing personal information.

• Always consider why someone wants your information and if it is appropriate. There is no reason someone would need your username & password to access public information.
• Do not rush or feel under pressure.
• Cybercriminals use emergencies such as 2019-nCov to get people to make decisions quickly. Always take time to think about a request for your personal information, and whether the request is appropriate.
• If you gave sensitive information, don’t panic. 
• If you believe you have given data such as your username or passwords to cybercriminals, immediately change your credentials on each site where you have used them.
• If you see a scam, report it to Police.

Or

• to https://www.who.int/about/report_scam/en/