Walmart Email Virus

What is "Walmart Email Virus"?

"Walmart Email Virus" is a spam email campaign used by cyber criminals to distribute Hawkeye keylogger. Like most emails of this type, they are sent to many people (hundreds or even thousands) and presented as "official" and legitimate messages. Generally, they encourage people to open malicious attachments that proliferate malware infections.

Cyber criminals often hide behind well-known names of companies and organizations. In this case, they claim to be representatives of Walmart to trick more people into opening the attachment presented in the email. According to the message, the attachment contains an important document (e-SDR) that needs to be printed and presented to a bank.

As mentioned, this is just a scam and the people who sent this email are not associated with Walmart. The cyber criminals who create this email add an attachment that, once opened, will download and install the Hawkeye keylogger, which steals various information.

Hawkeye can record data such as copy-and-paste commands stored on the clipboard and users' inputted text within .txt, .doc, and .docx files. This is not a sophisticated keylogger, but might cause various problems. Data tracking apps cause financial and privacy issues by collecting banking details, passwords, logins, and so on.

Cyber criminals try to record as much data as possible and then use it to generate revenue. If you have already opened the attachment presented in a "Walmart Email Virus" email, there is a high possibility that Hawkeye keylogger has already infiltrated the system.

Threat Summary:

Name	Walmart 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.

Other spam email campaigns are very similar to "Walmart Email Virus". Most encourage people to open attachments that either proliferate viruses or install malicious software. If successful, these campaigns often cause privacy/safety issues and other problems. If you suspect that your computer has been infected, remove all viruses immediately.

How did "Walmart Email Virus" infect my computer?

Spam email campaigns commonly employ attachments to proliferate malicious software. Generally, these are Microsoft Office documents such as .doc (Word), .xls (Excel), and others. Once opened, they ask users for permission to enable macros commands, which (if enabled) execute scripts that download and install malware, in this case the Hawkeye keylogger.

Note, however, that malware will only be downloaded and installed if these attachments are opened with Microsoft Office programs. Users of other software and operating systems are safe.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Study emails that contain attachments, especially those sent from suspicious or unknown email addresses. If you suspect that the attachment is irrelevant or you cannot recognize the email sender, do not open the attachment. Furthermore, have reputable anti-virus and/or anti-spyware software installed and keep it enabled at all times.

Do not open Microsoft Office documents using Microsoft Office versions older than MS Office 2010. Newer versions have "Protected View" mode that prevents downloaded files (including malicious email attachments) from downloading and installing malware such as Hawkeye keylogger.

If you have already opened a "Walmart Email Virus" attachment, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate infiltrated malware.

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

Subject: Attached e-SDR(s) for the PO(s)#003546&003547
Dear Sir,
Attached please find the e-SDR(s) for the captioned PO#(s).
Please print our the attached e-SDR(s) accompanied with other required documents as per L/C to the bank or the documentation requirements on Retail Link for payment.
Kindly check the PO information on the attached e-SDR(s) before submitting to the bank.
If there is any question, please don't hesitate to contact us.
Tks & Best Regards.
Michelle Zou
Analyst
GLOBAL LOGISTICS
Walmart Global Sourcing
michelle.zhou@walmart.com 

Screenshot of a Hawkeye keylogger (VARICOCELE.exe) process in Task Manager:

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 Walmart 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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