Pricewaterhouse Coopers Email Virus

What is "Pricewaterhouse Coopers Email Virus"?

"Pricewaterhouse Coopers" is classified a spam email campaign used to proliferate the TrickBot trojan, a high-risk virus. Typically, these emails contain an attached file (document) and are sent to many people. Cyber criminals present these emails as legitimate and important in attempts to trick people into opening the attachments.

Generally, cyber criminals who use spam email campaigns claim to be representatives of a well-known company, in this case James McMillan from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The email states that an amount of £23,412.98 is outstanding and must be paid within 14 days of the email being sent.

The origin of this "debt" is not explained, however, people associated with this email attempt to persuade users not to ignore it. The purpose of the message is to trick people into opening the attachment that supposedly contains "important details" regarding the invoice.

As mentioned in the introduction, this email attachment proliferates a TrickBot trojan, a virus used to hijack visited websites by modifying their content. In this way, it is used to steal personal information such as bank account details, logins and passwords of various accounts, and so on.

Cyber criminals use the stolen data to generate revenue. Therefore, data tracking programs such as TrickBot trojan might cause privacy/security issues and financial problems. If you have already opened the attachment presented in the "Pricewaterhouse Coopers" email scam, it is very likely that your computer is infected.

Threat Summary:

Name	Pricewaterhouse Coopers 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.

Frequently, the purpose of these emails is to infect computers with TrickBot (or other viruses such as FormBook, Emotet, Adwind. etc). These viruses might be developed by different cyber criminals, but they pose a significant threat to your privacy and their presence should not be ignored. Remove them immediately.

How did "Pricewaterhouse Coopers Email Virus" infect my computer?

There are many spam campaigns similar to "Pricewaterhouse Coopers" including, for example "Ernst & Young", "BMO account report", "HMRC", and "Confidential Fax". All are used to send emails that contain a Microsoft Office document - Excel (.xls) files. Once opened, the document asks for permission to enable macros commands.

If enabled, these allow TrickBot to be downloaded and installed. Note, however, that if the Excel file is opened with a product other than Microsoft Office, the virus will not be able to proliferate. These particular spam campaigns usually target people who use Microsoft Office only.

How to avoid installation of malware?

To avoid these infections, we strongly recommend that you study each email, particularly if it seems irrelevant or sent from a suspicious email address. Certainly do not open any included attachments. Have reputable anti-virus/anti-spyware software installed and keep it enabled - this should detect viruses before they infect computers.

Bear in mind that older versions of Microsoft Office (prior to MS Office 2010) do not include "Protected View" mode that prevents downloaded attachments (presented in emails such as "Pricewaterhouse Coopers") from automatically downloading and installing malware.

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

Text presented in the "Pricewaterhouse Coopers Email Virus" email message:

Subject: Overdue Invoice
Overdue Invoice
First Reminder
We note that the balance of the invoice, attached to this letter for your ease of reference, and listed in the table below totalling £23,412.98 has not been paid. This invoice was due for payment as shown in the table.
If you have made payment before receiving this letter, we apologise for any invonvenience caused and thank you for your attention to this matter.
If you have not done so, we might also be able to offer you repayment options should you wish to discuss this. Alternatively, kindly within 14 days of the date of this email make payment of the full outstanding amount, set out in the table. Payment can be made by the methods shown in the invoice.
Kindly note that if you should choose to ingnore this letter, we shall claim further interest on the outstanding amount that you are liable for until the date of full payment. We shall also make a claim for resonable recovery costs.

Your faithfully

James McMillan
PwC | Manager
Mobile: +44 751 812 7218
Email: James.McMillan@pwcuk.co.uk
Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP

________________________________________
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 "Pricewaterhouse Coopers" spam campaign:

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▼ 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 Pricewaterhouse Coopers 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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