Standard Chartered Bank Email Virus

What is "Standard Chartered bank Email Virus"?

"Standard Chartered bank Email Virus" is one of many different spam email campaigns that includes TNT Email Virus, Thanksgiving Email Virus, and CitiBank Email Virus. This campaign is used by cyber criminals to proliferate a computer infection by tricking people into opening an email attachment.

In this case, scammers attempt to infect people's computers with Pony malware, which steals personal data.

In the "Standard Chartered bank Email Virus" spam campaign, scammers pose as representatives of a bank called Standard Chartered. According to them, the email relates to payment advice that can be viewed by downloading the attachment.

Cyber criminals behind this scam use a reverse logic tactic: they claim that this email and its attachment are confidential and, if you have received it by mistake, you should not open it and you should delete it. They even inform recipients that some such untrustworthy emails might cause computer infections, errors, and so on.

Note that you should ignore this email attachment. As mentioned, the attachment presented with the "Standard Chartered bank Email Virus" spam campaign proliferates the Pony virus. When the attachment is downloaded, it must first be extracted for the scam to take effect.

The archive file (with a ".arj" extension) extracts an executable (.exe) file that, once executed, installs the virus. Pony collects users' logins/passwords (and possibly other sensitive data) and sends them to a remote server controlled by cyber criminals. These people might gain access to users' bank accounts, thus causing financial losses.

If installed, the malware process can be found running in Task Manager under the name "EUPHENICS1 (32 bit)". We provide a screenshot of this process below. You are advised to ignore the "Standard Chartered bank Email Virus" spam campaign. Do not download or open the attachment.

Also ignore any other similar emails. If you have already opened the attachment, immediately scan the system with a reputable anti-virus/anti-spyware suite and eliminate all detected threats.

Threat Summary:

Name	Standard Chartered Bank 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.

Different spam campaigns proliferate different viruses. Some examples of other infections are FormBook, Adwind, TrickBot, and AZORult. These viruses are designed to gather as much personal data as possible including logins, passwords, banking details, and so on - anything that can be used to generate revenue.

Some cyber criminals attempt to infect systems with viruses that proliferate other viruses (chain infections). Trojans are an example. These might cause ransomware-type infections (viruses that encrypt data and make ransom demands).

How did "Standard Chartered bank Email Virus" infect my computer?

As mentioned above, spam campaigns infect systems through attachments. Typically, these can proliferate viruses when they are downloaded and opened (depending on the malicious file). In this case, cyber criminals present an attachment as an archive file. To infect a system, the file must be extracted and then executed.

It then begins installation of the Pony virus. In other cases, cyber criminals send Microsoft Office documents, PDF files, executables, and so on.

How to avoid installation of malware?

To keep your computer safe from infections that are proliferated using spam campaigns, carefully analyze emails that contain attachments. If you receive an email from an unknown/suspicious address, do not open any link or attachment. The same applies to emails that seem irrelevant due to the context of the message.

Furthermore, have a reputable anti-spyware or anti-virus suite installed and keep it enabled at all times - these tools can stop viruses and other infections before do any damage. If you have already opened the "Standard Chartered bank Email Virus" attachment, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate infiltrated malware.

Text presented in the "Standard Chartered bank Email Virus" email message:

Subject: Your beneficiary advice from Standard Chartered bank.

Dear customer,

We are pleased to attach your Payment advice with this email, based on the request from the sender to keep you informed.

Should you have any enquiry or require assistance, please contact the sender (our customer) at the contact number stated in the attached advice.

Please note that you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader Version 5.0 or above to view your advice. If you do not have the required software, you can download it from the Adobe website at www.adobe.com

This is a system generated e-mail. Please do not reply to the sender of this e-mail.

Best Regards,
Customer Service Manager
Standard Chartered Bank

Disclaimer

This email and any attachments are confidential and may also be privileged. If you are not the addressee notify the sender immediately and destroy this email without using, sending or storing it. Emails are not secure and may suffer errors, viruses, delay, interception and amendment. Standard Chartered PLC and subsidiaries ("SCGroup") do not accept liability for damage caused by this email and may monitor email traffic. Unless expressly stated, any opinions are the sender's and are not approved by SCGroup and this email is not an offer, solicitation, recommendation or agreement of any kind. You may wish to refer to the incorporation details of Standard Chartered PLC, Standard Chartered Bank and their subsidiaries at hxxps://www.sc.com/en/incorporation-details.html.

If you wish to be discontinue receiving your statements through email, please contact your customer services representative or your local Standard Chartered Bank support telephone number.

Standard Chartered Bank ("SCB") is a member of SCGroup incorporated in England with limited liability. SCB's principal office is 1 Basinghall Avenue, London, EC2V 5DD, UK. SCB is authorised and regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority ("PRA") and the Financial Conduct Authority ("FCA") and registered with PRA and FCA under no. 114276. SCB's VAT no. is GB244106593. PRA and FCA are the lead regulators for the SCGroup. For regulators in other countries contact the local compliance officer.

Screenshot of a malicious Task Manger process ("EUPHENICS1 (32 bit)") that infects computers through the "Standard Chartered bank Email Virus" email attachment:

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Quick menu:

• What is Standard Chartered Bank 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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