Hiding Taxes Email Scam

What is "Hiding Taxes"?

The "Hiding Taxes" scam is proliferated by sending emails to many people. Scammers behind it attempt to trick people into sending money (cryptocurrency). They threaten to proliferate information about the supposed recipient's tax evasion activity. In fact, all statements in this scam are false. Never trust these emails.

The email states that cyber criminals have hacked the recipient's network, made copies of various documents and other data, and (supposedly) hacked the email account. According to these scammers, they inspected all of the recipient's documents and found information about illegal activity relating to tax evasion.

Scammers threaten to send this information to the tax department unless they receive two Bitcoins within seven days. The cost of their "silence" might be increased to four Bitcoins. Furthermore, they threaten to launch a DDoS attack and infect the computer with a ransomware-type program.

Since this is a scam, none of this should be taken seriously. Scammers often send these emails hoping that someone will fall for their scheme. Unfortunately, sometimes they succeed.

Threat Summary:

Name	"Hiding Taxes" email scam.
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud.
Fake Claim	Criminals state that they have hacked the recipient's network/email address and analyzed stored documents. They claim that the documents revealed that the recipient is avoiding taxes and that all information will be presented to the tax department unless the recipient sends two Bitcoins (this cost might eventually increase to four Bitcoins) within seven days. Criminals also threaten to infect the recipient's computer with WannaCry ransomware and launch a DDoS attack.
Cyber Criminal Cryptowallet Address	1Dz7DbQmE7SNm3C5mb9syPcctgZECcCEbL (wallet address may vary depending on the "Hiding Taxes" email spam campaign variant).
Symptoms	Unauthorized online purchases, changed online account passwords, identity theft, illegal access of the 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.

This scam is quite similar to many other emails of this kind, such as "Proof Attached", "Electronic Materials Involving Underage Children", and "This Account Was Recently Infected". The main purpose of these spam campaigns is to extort money from people by threatening to proliferate their personal or compromising data/information.

In summary, their goal is to make people believe that if they do not cooperate, they will be in trouble. Other scams send emails containing malicious attachments. These emails are used to proliferate computer infections such as LokiBot, TrickBot, Emotet, AZORult, Adwind and other high-risk viruses.

Attached files are usually JavaScript files, archives such as ZIP, RAR, Microsoft Office documents, executables and other files. Note that these attachments can cause computer infections only if they are opened - they then install malicious programs that can steal personal details such as logins, passwords of accounts (including banking), and so on.

People with computers infected with these viruses usually experience problems relating to financial/data loss, issues with privacy, browsing safety, and so on.

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 (scams) that proliferate computer infection can cause damage only if the attachments or web links presented in them are opened. For example, if an executable file presented in an archive file is opened, it will install a malicious program.

When opened, attached Microsoft Office documents usually demand permission to enable content (and disable "Protected View" mode). If this permission is granted, the malicious document starts downloading (and then installing) malware. This causes a computer infection. Other files (attachments) cause damage in a similar manner.

How to avoid installation of malware?

If an email is irrelevant or simply does not concern you, ignore it, especially if it contains an attachment or web link. Download software using direct links and official websites. Do not use third party downloaders, installers, or other such tools (such as Peer-to-Peer networks, unofficial pages, and so on) to download software.

Update installed software using tools or implemented functions that are provided by official software developers only. Third party tools are often used to proliferate malicious programs. Do not use software 'cracking' tools to activate operating systems or installed programs. Using these tools is illegal and they often cause computer infections.

Have reputable anti-virus or anti-spyware software installed and keep it enabled at all times. These tools can detect and remove malicious files before they can do any damage. 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 "Hiding Taxes" email message:

FORWARD THIS MAIL TO WHOEVER IS IMPORTANT IN YOUR COMPANY AND CAN MAKE DECISION!

We Hacked network.
We Caught Communications.
We Backuped DATA And DOCUMENTS.
We send this mail to you in YOUR account.

After analyzing documents. We found Illegal activity - HIDING TAXES.

That we want?

I want two (2) Bitcoin
To wallet Bitcoin.
1Dz7DbQmE7SNm3C5mb9syPcctgZECcCEbL

That we do if you don't pay bitcoin?

We send these Documents and roofs to your Tax Department.

And in this time Your network will be DDoS.
Read that in this link
hxxps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial-of-service_attack

We are locking your operation system. Our friends, WannaCry, ready start and waiting command.
Read that in this link
hxxps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WannaCry_ransomware_attack

This is our guarantee, that you don't clean evidence and building a protection policy.

If you don't pay by in 7 days, attack will start.

Attack including.

1.DDOS
2.Locking operation system
3.Sending all documents in Tax Departament

Yours service going down permanently and price to stop will increase to Four (4) BTC, Price will go up one (1) BTC for every day of the attack.

This is not a joke.

Our attacks are extremely powerful - sometimes over 1 Tbps per second.
And we pass CloudFlare and others remote protections!
So, no cheap protection will help.

Prevent this problem all with just Two (2) BTC Pay to our wallet Bitcoin.
1Dz7DbQmE7SNm3C5mb9syPcctgZECcCEbL

AND YOU WILL NEVER AGAIN HEAR FROM US!

If you read, hear fake-experts and assure yourself that this is not true.
Remember that they are not responsible and your life don't important him.
Their business is to speak and make money.
Your business to do and make money and stay freedom.

All mistakes in text we do specially.

Bitcoin is anonymous, nobody will ever know you cooperated.

Time started after open this mail.
To track the reading of a message and the actions in it, I use the facebook pixel.
Read that in this link
hxxps://www.facebook.com/business/help/898185560232180?helpref=faq_content

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 Hiding Taxes 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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