Y.E DESIGN Email Virus

What is "Y.E DESIGN Email Virus"?

Cyber criminals use the "Y.E DESIGN Email Virus" spam email campaign to spread the Emotet malicious program, a high-risk virus infection designed to steal sensitive/personal information and proliferate other infections.

Criminals send many emails that contain a malicious attachment - once opened (executed), the file installs the aforementioned Emotet virus. We strongly recommend that you ignore this and other similar emails.

Scammers/cyber criminals who created this spam campaign send an email designed to give the impression that it relates to a purchase order. The message urges recipients to issue an invoice urgently (no later than 14.01.19).

The email claims to be from Annie M. Juarez (either a fictitious person or a stolen identity) who is a representative of the Y.E DESIGN company based in Malaysia. The company has nothing to do with this scam - scammers often use the names of well-known companies. The email contains an attachment, a malicious Excel file.

Once opened, the file asks to enable editing (or enable content). Protected View mode prevents infected documents from infiltrating computers and, therefore, we strongly recommend that you remain in this mode when dealing with documents downloaded from unsafe locations or senders (including emails such as "Y.E DESIGN Email Virus").

If asked, do not enable editing or macros commands, since this will result in download and installation of Emotet. This virus is designed to steal sensitive, personal information such as logins, passwords, data relating to browsing activity, and banking details.

By gaining access to this information, cyber criminals could perform money transfers or purchases. Furthermore, computer infections of this type often open "backdoors" for other threats (viruses). Thus, having a malicious program such as Emotet installed can lead to further virus installations.

Threat Summary:

Name	Y.E DESIGN 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.

Cyber criminals use many other spam campaigns to proliferate computer infections including, for example, UNILEVER Email Virus, Christmas Day Bonus Gift Email Virus, and A2 Trading Corp Email Virus. Examples of other possible threats are Adwind, FormBook, TrickBot, and Ursnif. Most of these viruses are proliferated via emails that contain malicious attachments (or website links).

How did "Y.E DESIGN Email Virus" infect my computer?

"Y.E DESIGN Email Virus" can infect computers only if the malicious attachment is opened and Protected View is turned off (editing or macro commands are enabled). In this situation, the malicious Excel document downloads and installs the Emotet virus. In other cases, the attached documents might be archive files, PDF documents, executable files, and so on.

The email might also contain a web link that leads to a malicious attachment. In all cases, however, these infections cannot proliferate without the manual intervention of the computer user - permission must first be given for a particular infection to be installed. For example, manual execution of an infected .exe (executable) file.

How to avoid installation of malware?

To prevent computer infection by viruses proliferated through malicious email attachments, do not download or open attachments (or web links) presented in emails received from unknown, suspicious, or untrustworthy email addresses. Having a reputable anti-virus or anti-spyware suite installed and enabled can prevent installation of many viruses.

They can also prevent harm to operating systems by detecting and eliminating threats early. If you have already opened a "Y.E DESIGN Email Virus" attachment, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate infiltrated malware.

Text presented in the "Y.E DESIGN Email Virus" email message:

Subject: PURCHASE ORDER : PO# GT-18501109

Dear Sir,

We enclosed attached (PO# GT-18501109), please issue us Proforma Invoice accordingly to arrange 50% down payment and 50% balance will be remitted after receiving scan copy of shipping documents.

Please advise us on your best delivery time(ETD and ETA). Once we receive Proforma
Invoice, we will arrange payment .

We need Order urgently.
Kindly help to advise the part number.
Delivery date : If possible not later than 14.01.19. Kindly advise us.

Regards!
Annie M. Juarez

Y.E DESIGN VISION SDN BHD (422065-K)
No.18 Persiaran Lombong Emas Park, Seremban Light Industrial Park,
Julam Tun Fr. Ismail, 70200 Seremban, Negeri Sembilan.
Phone: 06-7613 931 Fax: 06-7613 137
(SST No: N10-1808-22200003)

Malicious attachment distributed via the "Y.E DESIGN 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 Y.E DESIGN 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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