BESTLABS Email Virus

What is "BESTLABS Email Virus"?

"BESTLABS Email Virus" is a spam email campaign similar to "UPS Email Virus" "Lloyds Bank Email Virus", "Quotation Inquiry Email Virus", and many others.

Criminals use this campaign to proliferate a high-risk virus called LokiBot. Generally, cyber criminals send thousands of deceptive emails encouraging users to open attached documents, however, this can lead to system infection.

"BESTLABS Email Virus" campaign emails are presented as notifications of purchase orders. The message simply asks users to open an attached MS Office document and confirm that the cost and delivery date are correct. In fact, opening the document leads to infiltration of LokiBot.

Note that the email is signed by a company called Bestlabs Singapore, however, this is part of the deceit. Cyber criminals often hide behind names of legitimate companies and governmental agencies to increase the number of infections - users are much more likely to open files received from familiar names.

LokiBot works on Microsoft Windows and Google Android operating systems. Its main purpose is to gather sensitive information by stealing saved logins/passwords from browsers, recording keystrokes and other similar information. The data is saved on a remote server controlled by cyber criminals.

These people might hijack bank, social network, and other personal accounts. These people aim to generate as much revenue as possible and, thus, hijacked accounts are often misused through online purchases, money transactions, and so on. Therefore, the presence of the LokiBot virus can lead to serious privacy issues and significant financial loss.

If you have recently opened any attachment from this email campaign, there is a high probability that your computer is infected. Therefore, we strongly advise you to run a full system scan with a reputable anti-virus/anti-spyware suite and eliminate all detected threats.

Threat Summary:

Name	BESTLABS spam
Threat Type	Trojan, Password stealing virus, Banking malware, Spyware
Symptoms	Trojans are designed to stealthily infiltrate victim's computer and remain silent thus no particular symptoms are clearly visible on an infected machine.
Distribution methods	Infected email attachments, malicious online advertisements, social engineering, software cracks.
Damage	Stolen banking information, passwords, identity theft, victim's computer added to a botnet.
Malware Removal (Windows)	To eliminate possible malware infections, scan your computer with legitimate antivirus software. Our security researchers recommend using Combo Cleaner. ▼ Download Combo Cleaner To use full-featured product, you have to purchase a license for Combo Cleaner. 7 days free trial available. Combo Cleaner is owned and operated by Rcs Lt, the parent company of PCRisk.com read more.

LokiBot shares many similarities with dozens of other trojan-type viruses distributed by spam campaigns, including TrickBot, Adwind, and FormBook, Emotet.

The behavior of these viruses might differ slightly - some gather information, whilst others proliferate other viruses, and so on. In any case, these trojans all pose a direct threat to your privacy and computer safety. Therefore, you should eliminate these threats immediately.

How did "BESTLABS Email Virus" infect my computer?

As mentioned above, the "BESTLABS Email Virus" campaign proliferates a malicious Microsoft Office attachment. Once opened, this file immediately asks victims to enable macros, however, by doing so, users will grant the file permission to infiltrate LokiBot into the system. This malware distribution method is simple and effective, however, it has a significant flaw.

Macro commands can only be executed if the file is opened using the MS Office suite. If the .doc file is opened using any application other than MS Word, the malware will not be downloaded. As mentioned above, LokiBot targets only Windows and Android operating systems, and users of other platforms are safe.

How to avoid installation of malware?

To prevent this situation, be very cautious when browsing the internet. Carefully analyze each email attachment received. Files that are irrelevant/unexpected and those received from suspicious email addresses should never be opened. In addition, have a reputable anti-virus/anti-spyware suite installed and running.

These tools can detect and eliminate malware before it does any damage. Note that 2010 and newer versions of MS Office open newly-downloaded documents in "Protected View" mode.

This prevents malicious documents from infecting the system. If you have already opened a "BESTLABS Email Virus" attachment, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate infiltrated malware.

Text presented in the "BESTLABS Email Virus" email message:

Subject: Purchase Order (BESTLABS)
Good Day,
Can you please confirm the price and delivery data upon receipt of purchase order?
Thank you,
Thanks and regards,
FREDRISK (MR)
ASISTANT LAB MANAGER

Malicious attachment distributed via "BESTLABS Email Virus" spam campaign:

Instant automatic malware removal: Manual threat removal might be a lengthy and complicated process that requires advanced IT skills. Combo Cleaner is a professional automatic malware removal tool that is recommended to get rid of malware. Download it by clicking the button below:
▼ DOWNLOAD Combo Cleaner By downloading any software listed on this website you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. To use full-featured product, you have to purchase a license for Combo Cleaner. 7 days free trial available. Combo Cleaner is owned and operated by Rcs Lt, the parent company of PCRisk.com read more.

Quick menu:

• What is BESTLABS spam?
• Types of malicious emails.
• How to spot a malicious email?
• What to do if you fell for an email scam?

Types of malicious emails:

Phishing Emails

Most commonly, cybercriminals use deceptive emails to trick Internet users into giving away their sensitive private information, for example, login information for various online services, email accounts, or online banking information.

Such attacks are called phishing. In a phishing attack, cybercriminals usually send an email message with some popular service logo (for example, Microsoft, DHL, Amazon, Netflix), create urgency (wrong shipping address, expired password, etc.), and place a link which they hope their potential victims will click on.

After clicking the link presented in such email message, victims are redirected to a fake website that looks identical or extremely similar to the original one. Victims are then asked to enter their password, credit card details, or some other information that gets stolen by cybercriminals.

Emails with Malicious Attachments

Another popular attack vector is email spam with malicious attachments that infect users' computers with malware. Malicious attachments usually carry trojans that are capable of stealing passwords, banking information, and other sensitive information.

In such attacks, cybercriminals' main goal is to trick their potential victims into opening an infected email attachment. To achieve this goal, email messages usually talk about recently received invoices, faxes, or voice messages.

If a potential victim falls for the lure and opens the attachment, their computers get infected, and cybercriminals can collect a lot of sensitive information.

While it's a more complicated method to steal personal information (spam filters and antivirus programs usually detect such attempts), if successful, cybercriminals can get a much wider array of data and can collect information for a long period of time.

Sextortion Emails

This is a type of phishing. In this case, users receive an email claiming that a cybercriminal could access the webcam of the potential victim and has a video recording of one's masturbation.

To get rid of the video, victims are asked to pay a ransom (usually using Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency). Nevertheless, all of these claims are false - users who receive such emails should ignore and delete them.

How to spot a malicious email?

While cyber criminals try to make their lure emails look trustworthy, here are some things that you should look for when trying to spot a phishing email:

• Check the sender's ("from") email address: Hover your mouse over the "from" address and check if it's legitimate. For example, if you received an email from Microsoft, be sure to check if the email address is @microsoft.com and not something suspicious like @m1crosoft.com, @microsfot.com, @account-security-noreply.com, etc.
• Check for generic greetings: If the greeting in the email is "Dear user", "Dear @youremail.com", "Dear valued customer", this should raise suspiciousness. Most commonly, companies call you by your name. Lack of this information could signal a phishing attempt.
• Check the links in the email: Hover your mouse over the link presented in the email, if the link that appears seems suspicious, don't click it. For example, if you received an email from Microsoft and the link in the email shows that it will go to firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0... you shouldn't trust it. It's best not to click any links in the emails but to visit the company website that sent you the email in the first place.
• Don't blindly trust email attachments: Most commonly, legitimate companies will ask you to log in to their website and to view any documents there; if you received an email with an attachment, it's a good idea to scan it with an antivirus application. Infected email attachments are a common attack vector used by cybercriminals.

To minimise the risk of opening phishing and malicious emails we recommend using Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows. 

Example of a spam email:

What to do if you fell for an email scam?

• If you clicked on a link in a phishing email and entered your password - be sure to change your password as soon as possible. Usually, cybercriminals collect stolen credentials and then sell them to other groups that use them for malicious purposes. If you change your password in a timely manner, there's a chance that criminals won't have enough time to do any damage.
• If you entered your credit card information - contact your bank as soon as possible and explain the situation. There's a good chance that you will need to cancel your compromised credit card and get a new one.
• If you see any signs of identity theft - you should immediately contact the Federal Trade Commission. This institution will collect information about your situation and create a personal recovery plan.
• If you opened a malicious attachment - your computer is probably infected, you should scan it with a reputable antivirus application. For this purpose, we recommend using Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows.
• Help other Internet users - report phishing emails to Anti-Phishing Working Group, FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, National Fraud Information Center and U.S. Department of Justice.

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