Confidential Fax Email Virus

What is Confidential Fax Email Virus?

"Confidential Fax Email Virus" is a spam email campaign used to distribute TrickBot, a high-risk trojan virus. In this case, cyber criminals send emails to thousands of people and present them as important emails with attachments, which supposedly contain confidential and privileged information. Once opened, however, these attachments cause infiltration of the TrickBot virus.

The information contained within the email attachment is not specified, however, the purpose of the message is to get users' attention and trick them into opening the attachment. This usually leads to installation of TrickBot. To increase the number of infections, cyber criminals attempt to make these emails seem important.

In many cases, cyber criminals claim to represent governmental institutions or recognizable companies. If cyber criminals succeed in tricking users into opening the attachment, they are able to use this trojan to record account credentials.

TrickBot hijacks websites visited by affected users and modifies the content so that entered passwords, logins, and other credentials are saved to a remote server. In this way, TrickBot's developers can acquire details about users' bank, social network, and other personal accounts.

Generally, TrickBot is used to generate as much revenue as possible. These viruses (and other data tracking apps) cause serious problems relating to privacy or finances. If you have already opened the attachment from the "Confidential Fax Email Virus" campaign, then it is likely that your computer is also infected with TrickBot. We recommend that you scan your system using a reputable anti-virus and anti-spyware software to remove all possible threats.

Threat Summary:

Name	Confidential Fax 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.

Many trojan viruses are similar to TrickBot and are distributed through spam campaigns. Some examples are FormBook, Emotet, and Adwind. These viruses might perform different actions, but all pose a direct threat to computer safety and your privacy. We strongly recommend that you remove viruses such as TrickBot immediately.

How did Confidential Fax Email Virus infect my computer?

"Confidential Fax Email Virus" promotes a malicious Microsoft Office document, in this case a .doc (Word) file. Once opened, it asks users to enable macros commands, otherwise the contents of this Word document will supposedly not be displayed properly.

Once permission to enable macros commands is granted, the attachments execute commands that allow TrickBot to be downloaded and installed. This malware distribution method is very convenient for cyber criminals, however, they can use it only with Microsoft Office products.

Therefore, the attachment sent by cyber criminals can be opened only with one of the MS Office suite products. If some other applications are used, it will not infect the system. TrickBot can be proliferated only on Windows systems, and thus users of other platforms are safe.

How to avoid installation of malware?

The key to computer and privacy safety is caution. Carefully analyze each email - do not open attachments that are presented in emails sent from unknown/suspicious senders. Have a reputable anti-virus/anti-spyware software installed and keep it enabled at all times. You are strongly advised to use newer versions of Microsoft Office (no older than 2010).

Newer versions open downloaded documents in "Protected View" mode, thus preventing files from downloading (or installing) malware. By using older versions, users put their computers and privacy at risk. If you have already opened a "Confidential Fax Email Virus" attachment, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate infiltrated malware.

Text presented in the "Confidential Fax Email Virus" email message:

Subject: New fax message
This message was sent on : Fri, 5 Oct 2018 06:27:14 -0400
For : jenniferwright@victimsdomain.com
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The contents of this email message and any attachments are intended solely for the addressee(s) and may contain confidential and/or privileged information and may be legally protected from disclosure.

Malicious attachment distributed via "Confidential Fax 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 Confidential Fax 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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