Confirm Bank Account Email Virus
Written by Tomas Meskauskas on (updated)
What is "Confirm Bank Account Email Virus"?
"Confirm Bank Account Email Virus" is a typical scam that is distributed through a spam campaign. An email is sent to many users with the aim of tricking them into opening an attachment. When opened, this attachment infects computers with Hawkeye, a high-risk computer infection that is designed to steal various information. Do not trust this email and leave the attachment unopened.
Scammers present "Confirm Bank Account Email Virus" as an email message encouraging recipients to confirm their bank account details. They state that they are ready to make a payment relating to an invoice, but cannot do this due to some discrepancies between bank account details provided.
They explain that a previously used account is different from the current one. Cyber criminals who proliferate this email urge people to confirm if there are any mistakes regarding their account details and to check them by opening the presented attachment. As mentioned, the presented attachment infects computers with Hawkeye.
This is a malicious program designed to record keystrokes, credentials of various accounts, and so on. Hawkeye is categorized as a keylogger that is also capable of recording clipboard data, monitoring input to documents, and so on. Furthermore, it can be used to gain access to personal accounts on social networks, banks, emails, etc.
If installed, it might cause serious problems relating to privacy, finances, and so on. Therefore, do not open the attachment (.doc) file presented in this email and ignore any other emails of this type.
Name | Confirm Bank Account 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. |
There are many similar spam email campaigns (scams). Some examples are "Sendinc Email Virus", "O2 Bill Email Virus", and "TD Bank Email Virus".
Generally, they are sent to trick recipients into opening attachments that cause computer infections. They are used to proliferate malicious programs such as Adwind, Pony, FormBook, AZORult, and many others. These computer infections cause a number of problems and distributors use the programs to generate as much revenue as possible.
How did "Confirm Bank Account Email Virus" infect my computer?
In this particular case, scammers attempt to infect computers by attaching a malicious ".doc" format file, a Microsoft Office Word document. Generally, MS Office prevents the opening of dubious attachments using "Protected View" mode. For a computer infection to be downloaded and installed, it is necessary to disable this mode and enable contents and/or editing.
Once this is done, a malicious documents gains permission to download a computer infection (in this case, Hawkeye). Scammers/cyber criminals often proliferate this program using spam campaigns (including "Confirm Bank Account Email Virus") or various remote access tools (RATs).
How to avoid installation of malware?
Do not trust emails received from unknown, suspicious addresses. Especially if they contain attachments or web links. Typically, they are presented as legitimate and official, however, this does not mean that they can be trusted. Furthermore, they are often irrelevant/do not concern their recipients. Download software using official websites (or other trustworthy sources).
Various Peer-to-Peer networks (torrent clients, eMule and so on), unofficial websites, third party downloaders and other similar channels should not be trusted or used. Other types of tools that should not be trusted include software "cracking" tools - programs that activate paid software free of charge. These are illegal and are often are to proliferate computer infections.
Finally, have a reputable anti-virus or anti-spyware installed and enabled. These tools can detect and eliminate malicious programs or other threats before they can do any damage to operating systems or files stored on the computer. If you have already opened the "Confirm Bank Account Email Virus" attachment, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate infiltrated malware.
Text presented in the "Confirm Bank Account Email Virus" email message:
Subject: Please confirm bank account Asap
Dear Sir,
Sorry for the delay.
We are about to make the payment for the invoice but the bank account stated in the attached invoice is different from the previous one we made 50% advance payment.
So kindly reconfirm the bank account details before we remit the payment to avoid mistake.Awaits for your urgent confirmation.
Thank you,
Soumitra BanerjeeSenior Manager - Sales
Mobile # +971 50 4315250
Filtrec Middle East FZC, P.O.Box:50047 ,RAK Free Trade Zone, Ras-Al-Khaimah, UAE
Phone # +971 7 2660 488 , Fax # +971 7 2660 499
Website : www.filtrec.ae /www.filtrec.com
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Quick menu:
- What is Confirm Bank Account 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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