Crypto Scammer Creativity: Impersonating Olympic Committee

Email scams are somewhat of an exciting thing to bear witness to, with over creativity mandates to reach relative success within it. A new series of scam emails have sprouted out of Japan, impersonating organizations of the Olympic Games in Tokyo and asking for donations.

Trend Micro Warning Of new Scam

With the pandemic ongoing, and hitting Japan harder than most countries, it’s only natural for the postponement of the Olympic Games in Tokyo. This, in turn, has triggered the creatives in the crypto scamming industry, however, and spawned a range of online crypto scams. This includes emails claiming to be from members of the International Olympic Committee, asking for unsuspecting victims for donations within it.

Trend Micro first highlighted the issue, having done so on the 30th of April. Trend Micro stated that scammers are now asking for donations by way of crypto in order to support Japanese organizers. The scammers claim that this will allow them to recover from the economic impact that the postponement of the biggest Olympic sports event in the world has done.

Leveraging Public Sentiment

Through the fake email, the scammers claiming to be of the Olympic Committee stated that the organization needs to recover from an array of lost investments. They claimed they lost money in hotels, airline tickets, production booking arrangements, as well as infrastructure materials.

To further justify themselves, these online scam letters stated that the government had been forced to start collecting funds in order to compensate for losses. Thus, they cite this as justification as to why they mandate donations.

Promise Of Reward

The next part is the vague implications of not meeting the required amount. The scammers state that should they not meet the funding target, one they never specify, the Japanese People will have its image tarnished. According to the scammers, this runs the risk of outright canceling the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. It’s a well-thought-out measure, as the public image is a serious matter for Japan as a whole.

The last measure is the promise for a long-term reward. The email claims that it will extend a reward to those that donate into Bitcoin wallets, claimed to belong to the International Olympic Committee. Whoever donates, this scam email claims will be capable of gaining a discount of 30% on their Olympic Games tickets.

Japanese readers are urged to show adequate levels of caution in regard to these scams.