Key Takeaways
- The Maureen Hinckley Foundation scam involves phishing emails that promise a large donation and ask the recipient to contact a generic Gmail address for further details.
- The scammer impersonates Maureen Hinckley, a real person who won a $61.4 million Powerball prize in 2013, in an attempt to gain credibility and increase the chances of the scam working.
- The scam has been circulating for years and has evolved into more sophisticated versions, highlighting the adaptability of cybercriminals. It's important to stay vigilant, double-check links, and stay informed about cybersecurity trends to avoid falling victim to scams like this.
Scam emails come in all shapes and sizes: from polished phishing attempts that are nearly indistinguishable from legitimate emails to unconvincing messages full of spelling and grammatical errors.
One scam that has caught our attention revolves around a certain Maureen Hinckley and her supposed foundation. But how exactly does this scam work? Is Maureen Hinckley even a real person? If yes, who is she, and does she actually have a foundation? Here's what you need to know.
How the Maureen Hinckley Foundation Scam Works
If you've received an email from someone claiming to be a woman named Maureen Hinckley or supposedly representing her foundation, it might read something like this:
Hello,
I am Maureen Hinckley, and my foundation is donating $550,000 USD to you. Please contact us via email at mauhin62@gmail.com for further details.
Best Regards,
Mrs. Maureen Hinckley,
Copyright © 2023 The Maureen Hinckley Foundation. All Rights Reserved.
As you can see, in this case, the scammer claims to be Maureen Hinckley herself. The message is short, simple, straight to the point, and contains no spelling or grammatical errors (which are usually reliable signs of a phishing scam), so the scammer at least tried to appear legitimate.
There are some glaring issues with the email, however. If we ignore the contents for a moment, the comical insertion of the copyright symbol should be enough of a tell in and of itself. The "All Rights Reserved" disclaimer is equally ridiculous. Likewise, the fact that the target is being directed to a generic Gmail address is another obvious red flag—wouldn't a charity foundation that hands out money to random people have a branded email address?
As for the contents of the message, what we have here is a typical call-to-action phishing attempt: the target is being baited with the promise of half a million dollars, and they are told to contact this supposed foundation in order to collect their money. It is also worth noting that the scammer uses "Maureen Hinckley" as their display name, while the email itself came from the following address: a0938377551@gmail.com.
How could anyone possibly fall for this? Well, people do. Not all of us are good with technology. You'd probably never fall for this scam, but an elderly relative might. Cybercriminals wouldn't invest time and resources into sending out these phishing emails if they didn't work. Most of the time, they don't, but if one person out of several thousand that are targeted falls for the scam, it's a worthwhile payoff.
Who Is Maureen Hinckley? Does She Have a Foundation?
Here's where this scam gets interesting. In 2013, a woman named Maureen Hinckley and her husband, Stephen, won a $61.4 million Powerball prize. The news outlet MassLive reported on this at the time, announcing that the Massachusetts Lottery had awarded the couple this massive sum. The article even features a photo of the Hinckleys posing with their ceremonial check.
This is significant because it shows that whoever is behind this scam didn't just pick out a random name. By claiming to be Mrs. Hinckley, they likely counted on their victims conducting a cursory Google search. Presumably, they assumed this would lend them some credibility and increase the chances of the scam working.
There are no records of a Maureen Hinckley foundation. There is a Hinckley Foundation, but it's based in the United Kingdom and has nothing to do with the Massachusetts woman who won the lottery in 2013. All of this goes to show that some effort went into developing the Maureen Hinckley scam, or rather the (fictional) narrative that underpins it.
This is neither the first nor the sole iteration of the Maureen Hinckley scam. Emails similar to the one shown above have circulated the web for years. The earliest instance of it we could find dates back to 2016 and was recorded by the Online Threat Alerts community.
Arguably the most advanced version of this scam circulated the web back in 2020 and was posted to the StopScamFraud forums. It's a long, well-written email in which the scammer claiming to be Mrs. Hinckley shares "her" life story, explains how she won the Powerball (this is supplemented with a link to a Daily Mail article), and claims to have cancer. The supposed Mrs. Hinckley tells the target that she is donating "$550,000 to you as part of [her] New Year charity project" and asks for their personal information.
What makes this even more impressive, in a rather sinister way, is that the scammer insists they are not engaging in any type of criminal activity but rather need personal information "because of the Identity theft [sic] going around the internet which I have been a victim in the past." The scammer explicitly says that they "do not want to ask you for your ID as [they] do not want to leave an impression in your mind that [they] want to steal your identity."
It's impossible to determine who first came up with the idea of impersonating the 2013 Powerball winner Maureen Hinckley, but it's clear that the scam has changed over the years. This suggests that various groups or individuals have refined the scheme for their own purposes. It also suggests that the scam has worked on a large enough number of people to incentivize its continuation.
With this in mind, it's obvious that the copyright symbol-infused email we received is the Maureen Hinckley Foundation scam in its most basic, rudimentary form. This is not to say that nobody has fallen for it, but other versions of the same phishing campaign appear far more convincing and sophisticated.
Stay Safe From the Maureen Hinckley Scam
What's interesting about the Maureen Hinckley scam is that it has stuck around for years, taking on various different forms. This shows that cybercriminals adapt and demonstrates why it's important to stay vigilant.
To stay safe from these scams and phishing in general, make sure you: double-check all links, ignore emails from unknown addresses, pass up on offers that seem too good to be true, and stay informed on the latest trends in cybersecurity. And remember, what seems like an obvious scam to you may cost someone else their hard-earned money or even their identity.
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