During our first ever Scam Search Party, we investigated “Verdant Charity”, a Kenya based advanced-fee scam.

Based on what was discovered, it seems that it is run by “skilled” developers who have transformed a simple scam into a complex ecosystem.

While we did perform extensive research, our goal for today and as always is to:

1. •Baseline prove its a scam by proving statements incorrect.
2. •Identify what they are trying to extract from the victim
3. •Identify the process and methodology by which they extract from the victim

High Level Overview

“Verdant Charity” is a gofundme type platform that allows users to create donation campaigns to raise money. These campaigns receive fake funding from bots or other manual methods that are systematically determined, then in order to “widthdraw” the funds, the victim needs to pay some sort of fee.

”Verdant Charity” seems to target those in poorer economic status in Kenya (also where the scam and the developer of the scam is based out of).

Proving It Is A Scam

Scam - “A dishonest scheme to gain money or possessions from someone fraudulently, especially a complex or prolonged one”

Dishonesty - Catching Them In a Lie

Lets start with proving it is dishonest.

Leadership Team

Web Archive Link

Their “Leadership” team is completely dishonest and uses unrelated persons images with updated names.

During our Scam Search Party, participants determined that:

1. •“Lemuel S. Denny” - Used an image of a Princeton Professor by the name of “Christopher”
2. •“Judy Ramos” - Used the image of “Laura” who is a Harvard Student + Founder
3. •“Robert Dyson” - Used an image of Andres, an Arizona State Representative and Harvard Student

This alone is enough to prove they are “dishonest”.

Some other things that were discovered but we won’t delve into here are:

1. •Reviews were fake and generated.
2. •Likes/Donators on Campaigns were generated.
   1. •Over 50% were created at the identical timestamp as another.
3. •Global Opportunities/Events were taken from external API’s
4. •Campaigns would be “fully funded” yet marked as no donations.
5. •Website uses images belonging to other charities and groups and claims to be their own

Identify What They Are Trying To Get

While they may be also stealing data and possibly banking details. The main thing they are trying to extract is direct finances. They charge “Advance Fees” and that is what they are trying to get out of this.

They do this through what they call “Impact Points” which are needed to unlock “Badges” which are required before victims are able to “widthdraw” their campaigns donations.

Impact points can be “earned”:

But in reality victims are pushed to buy impact points instead:

Along with all the comment scattered across social media platforms and messages talking about earning impact points, we can safely determine that this transaction is the core of what the scammers are trying to extract.

Identify The Process By Which They Extract

The process by which Verdant “scams” its victims is a fairly stress inducing and vile. Since they target Kenyans who are desperate for money, they hold a lot of power and almost toy with their victims.

This is how we believe the scam is performed:

1. •Victim somehow stumbles on Verdant Charity
2. •They see how others are “making money” on their donation campaigns and create their own
3. •Their campaign receives a significant amount of donations, normally at least 1 thousand USD (which could be lifechanging for them)
4. •Before they can withdraw their ‘funds’ their account is “banned”
5. •After pleading and begging, their account is respored with a tormenting email.
6. •They are told they need to ‘earn’ trust before withdrawing (they are told its optional but its really not), and they earn trust by accomplishing badges, which need ‘impact points’ which can be earned through hard work (Not sure what happens if someone actually says they will work for it). But impact points can also be bought. And there is the scam

Examples

The email once their account is restored:

We understand the past few days may have felt uncertain. Being temporarily restricted from your own account, especially during a time of need, can feel frustrating and even disheartening. But through your patience, your willingness to explain, and your belief in the process, you've made it possible for us to resolve the matter. That strength and resilience doesn’t go unnoticed.

Conclusion

While Verdant Charity is ultimately an advanced-fee scam, its sophistication and realism elevate it beyond typical fraud attempts.

By creating a functioning ecosystem complete with fake donations, believable emails, and gamified “trust” systems; it keeps victims engaged far longer than most online scams.

This case reflects a broader trend in cybercrime:

With the rise of AI tools for web development, design, and copywriting, scammers can now build highly convincing fake platforms faster and more easily than ever before.

Acknowledgements

We want to thank the wonderful participants of the Scam Search Party who helped us identify and investigate this scam — including but not limited to:

• •Alex Muscaliu
• •Dennis Lay
• •Ariel R. Robinson
• •Emmanuel Nudelman
• •Tenzin Phuntsok

Final Note

While the investigation and findings were intensive, we have opted to not include all our findings as they were helpful for us to investigate Verdant Charity, but would not be helpful in context of the goals of this report.

If you wish to learn more about our findings please reach out to us at info@cybersecurityreach.org and we would be happy to provide more information about the scam as well as the investigation that took place.