Remove malware delivered by the "Lo. Li. Pharma International" spam campaign

What is "Lo. Li. Pharma International Email Virus"?

"Lo. Li. Pharma International Email Virus" is yet another spam email campaign used to spread malware.

Cyber criminals send hundreds of thousands of emails containing deceptive messages that encourage recipients to open malicious attachments. At time of research, the distributed attachment was a Zip archive designed to inject computers with the Adwind trojan and terminate the processes of any existing anti-malware suites.

The message encourages recipients to open the attached file and states that it contains detailed information regarding a type of "advance payment" for an order. Note that Lo. Li. Pharma International is a pharmaceutical company and has nothing to do with this spam campaign.

Cyber criminals often claim to be employees of various reputable companies and governmental agencies in attempts to give the impression of legitimacy, since users are much more likely to open attachments received from recognizable names. Adwind is a high-risk trojan designed to steal information such as account credentials, banking information, browsing history, and so on.

Recorded information is later shared with third parties (potentially, cyber criminals) who generate revenue by misusing private details via direct money transfers, online purchases, borrowing money from victims' contacts, and so on. Therefore, victims might lose their savings, accrue debt, and have their identities stolen.

If you have already opened attachments proliferated via the "Lo. Li. Pharma International Email Virus" spam campaign, there is a high probability that your system is infected. Therefore, immediately scan the entire system with a reputable anti-virus/anti-spyware suite and eliminate all detected threats.

Threat Summary:

Name	Lo. Li. Pharma International spam
Threat Type	Trojan, Password-stealing virus, Banking malware, Spyware
Hoax	Criminals claim to be employees of the Lo. Li. Pharma International company and encourage recipients to open malicious attachments
Attachment(s)	7bf40a2eecde5dc3f be7e8172f72e700b20df299 f672a7ee803db8c93155a839.jar.000.zip (the filename and format may vary).
Detection Names	Avast (Java:Malware-gen [Trj]), BitDefender (Trojan.GenericKD.32160290), ESET-NOD32 (A Variant Of Generik.DUOUKHB), Kaspersky (HEUR:Backdoor.Java.QRat.gen), Full List Of Detections (VirusTotal)
Symptoms	Trojans are designed to stealthily infiltrate the victim's computer and remain silent, and thus no particular symptoms are clearly visible on an infected machine.
Payload	Adwind trojan
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.

There are many spam campaigns used to spread malware (e.g., "Transfast Email Virus", "FedEx Express Email Virus", and "Hydrotech Email Virus"). Although the delivered messages differ, the purpose of the malware is identical - to trick recipients into opening attached links/files, which are malicious.

Most of these trojans are used to proliferate trojan-type viruses (e.g., FormBook, TrickBot, Hancitor, etc.), however, in some instances, spam campaigns are also used to spread ransomware.

How did "Lo. Li. Pharma International Email Virus" infect my computer?

The "Lo. Li. Pharma International Email Virus" spam campaign delivers a malicious attachment and a message encouraging recipient to open it. At time of research, the attachment came in the format of a Zip archive, however, this might not always be the case, since criminals can also attach executables, links, Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, etc.) and PDF documents, and so on.

In this case, the attached Zip archive contains a .Jar file that, once opened, injects Adwind trojan into the system. The attachments are usually delivered within the aforementioned MS Office documents. Once opened, these files ask users to enable macro commands, which are used to download and install malware.

In any case, spam campaigns such as "Lo. Li. Pharma International Email Virus" require users' intervention, since they can only be effective if users manually open the attachments. Therefore, the main reasons for these computer infections are poor knowledge of the threats and careless behavior.

How to avoid installation of malware?

To prevent this situation, never open email attachments received from suspicious/unrecognizable email addresses. Ignore files/links that are irrelevant or do not concern you.

Bear in mind that criminals often send messages that are literally too good to be true (e.g., the recipient has won a big lottery prize, someone has transferred significant funds into the recipient's bank account, and so on). Do not fall for these tricks.

We also strongly recommend that you use 2010 or a newer version of Microsoft Office, since older versions are not implemented with "Protected View" mode, which prevents new documents from automatically running macro commands. The key to computer safety is caution.

If you have already opened the "Lo. Li. Pharma International Email Virus" attachment, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate infiltrated malware.

Text presented in the "Lo. Li. Pharma International Email Virus" email message:

Good Morning, Hope that you are well.
We have remitted the Amount Dated 05-07-2019 for advance payment on our Purchase Order PSC1705935.
Please find the attached swift copy for below payment.
Thanks in advance for your kind attention and prompt response.
Regards Finance Payable Team Business Development Assistant Tet : +971 65578304
Skype : a.ndungu Follow us on linkedIn www.lolipharmainternational.com

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 Lo. Li. Pharma International 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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