Scammers target Kanye West’s new Donda album

Over the past few months, the world has been following the progress of Kanye West’s latest album – Donda. Initially, Kanye West rented an entire stadium and locked himself inside to finish the album. He then gave a real show presentation with various special effects and levitation under the roof of the stadium. Now the preliminary release date is 26 August.

With all the hype surrounding the upcoming album, Kaspersky decided to investigate whether cybercriminals took advantage of the album release to spread files with various threats, phishing, etc., under the guise of Donda. Even though experts did not notice huge interest from scammers, during the period from July to August 2021, they managed to find several examples of dangerous programs and fraudulent links masquerading as the album.

In particular, experts found two adware files that disguised themselves as a media file with a new track:

• Download-File-KanyeWestDONDA320.zip_88481.msi
• Kanye West _ DONDA (Explicit) (2021) Mp3 320kbps [PMEDIA] __ – Downloader.exe

Other examples include various types of scams. In the first option, users receive a link to download the “album” and are asked to participate in a survey and confirm they are not a robot. The survey includes a series of questions, such as: “how much do you earn” and “do you want to become rich?” After the survey is completed, a user is directed to a scam website to make money on bitcoins. Of course, the link to the album never appears, and if users fall for the offer of becoming a bitcoin millionaire and enter personal data, they may lose their money and not get access to the album.

Examples of possible download links for the Donda album

Examples of scam sites that offer money making opportunities from bitcoins

The second popular example – a user finds a link to an archive with an album. But in reality, this archive will be infected with malware. After unpacking it, the user’s device will be infected.

In order to avoid fraudulent attacks by an attacker, Kaspersky has prepared a few simple tips:

• It’s safer to access content from official platforms only, like Apple App Store, Google Play, Spotify, Apple Music, etc. Apps and files on these are not 100% failsafe, but at least they get checked by the platform’s representatives and there is some filtration system.
• It is a good idea to check the link before clicking. Hover over it to preview the URL and look for misspelling or other irregularities.
• Sometimes e-mails and websites look just like real ones. It depends on how well the criminals did their homework. But the hyperlinks, most likely, will be incorrect with spelling mistakes, or they can redirect you to a different place.
• Try not to open unexpected files sent by your friends or relatives. They may be ransomware or even spyware, just like attachments from official-looking e-mails.
• Install a trusted security solution and follow its recommendations. These secure solutions will solve the majority of problems automatically and alert you if necessary.