AMEX Email Scam

What is "AMEX Email Scam"?

"AMEX Email Scam" is a spam campaign (a scam) that cyber criminals use to trick people into divulging various personal details (credit card details and other sensitive information). Trusting this email message might cause serious financial loss and privacy problems. We strongly Advise that you do not provide any details requested in the website form.

Scammers present this email as a notification from AMEX (American Express) about some recent updates to its online service platform. It states that the recipient's profile could not be authenticated (verified) and thus access to the card member's profile has been disabled.

To resolve this problem, people are encouraged to complete a form that can be opened by clicking the "See Attached" button, which then opens a fake/unofficial with very similar appearance to the official AMEX website.

It asks card members to enter details such as user ID and password, the 15-digit number on the front side of the credit card, a 4-digit CID number, 3-digit CSC security code, and card expiration date.

It also asks them to provide other personal details such as mother's maiden name and birth date, card member's place of birth, first elementary school, and a security PIN (a code provided during activation of the card). To update the profile details, card members are encouraged to complete all fields within the form.

These details might be used to make various purchases or could cause financial loss in a number of other ways. To avoid this situation, ignore this scam, which has nothing to do with American Express. Scammers commonly proliferate spam campaigns using the names of well-known, legitimate companies.

Threat Summary:

Name	AMEX Email Scam.
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud.
Symptoms	Unauthorized online purchases, changed online account passwords, identity theft, illegal access of user's computer.
Distribution methods	Deceptive emails, rogue online pop-up ads, search engine poisoning techniques, misspelled domains.
Damage	Loss of sensitive private information, monetary loss, identity theft.
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.

"AMEX Email Scam" is just one of many spam campaigns proliferated to extort money from recipients, thus causing financial losses. Note that "Iforgot.apple.com", "You Certainly Do Not Know Me", and "Hey. It's me! Your Future Friend Or Enemy" are just some examples of other scams used for the same purpose. There are, however, other spam campaigns.

These scams infect computers with high-risk malicious programs such as, for example, LokiBot, TrickBot, Emotet, AZORult, Adwind, and other viruses. These malicious programs are also used to generate revenue. Therefore, having a computer infected with these malicious programs can also lead to financial loss.

They might also cause privacy issues and additional infections. Typically, these programs steal passwords, banking details, and other personal information. Typically, these infections are caused when people open attachments or web links that are included within email scams.

The attachments might be Microsoft Office or PDF documents, executables (.exe files), Javascript files, archives such as ZIP, RAR, and so on. If opened, they download and install malicious programs.

We receive a great deal of feedback from concerned users about this scam email. Here is the most popular question we receive:

Q: Hi pcrisk.com team, I received an email stating that my computer was hacked and they have a video of me. Now they are asking for a ransom in Bitcoins. I think this must be true because they listed my real name and password in the email. What should I do?

A: Do not worry about this email. Neither hackers nor cyber criminals have infiltrated/hacked your computer and there is no video of you watching pornography. Simply ignore the message and do not send any Bitcoins. Your email, name, and password was probably stolen from a compromised website such as Yahoo (these website breaches are common). If you are concerned, you can check if your accounts have been compromised by visiting the haveibeenpwned website.

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Spam campaigns (emails) that contain malicious attachments can cause computer infections only if they are opened. For instance, a Microsoft Office document will demand permission to enable macros commands (in effect, to disable "Protected View" mode). If this permission is given, a malicious document will start downloading and installing a computer infection.

the same applies to other files. The contents of an archive file (ZIP, RAR, and so on) will need to be extracted and opened. In summary, to cause computer infections, attachments or web links that lead to them must be opened before they can affect the system. Leaving them unopened cannot do any damage.

How to avoid installation of malware?

To keep computers safe from various computer infections, avoid opening email attachments or web links that are sent from unknown, suspicious addresses. The same applies to emails that are irrelevant (even if they are presented as 'official'). Use only official websites and direct links when downloading software.

Peer-to-Peer networks (such as torrent clients, eMule and so on), unofficial websites, third party downloaders and installers should not be used. Be aware of tools that allow you to bypass paid activation of software or operating systems. Using these tools is a cyber crime that can also lead to various computer infections.

Installed software should be updated using tools or (implemented functions) that are provided by official software developers. Other third party tools should not be trusted, since they can be used to proliferate malicious programs. Additionally, having a reputable anti-virus or anti-spyware software can detect and remove infections.

If you have already opened malicious attachments, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate infiltrated malware.

Text presented in the "AMEX Email Scam" email message:

Account 100457
We're reaching you on a recent update on our online service platform and we feel the need to evaluate Cardmember's profile.
At the moment of evaluation. your profile couldn't be authenticated during diligence checks.
However; For security reason. We declined access to card member's profile and request that you confirm what we have on records for you.
Attached along this message is a web filliable form. Complete request by downloading and filling out the form.
See Attached
Thank you for your Card Membership,
American Express Customer Care

Screenshot of a scam website used to steal personal details:

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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 AMEX 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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