Avoid installation of Emotet through Spark Email Virus

What is "Spark Email Virus"?

Spark is the name of New Zealand's leading digital services company, however, some scammers use the name within their email scams to trick people into opening an attachment that installs malicious software called Emotet. Note, Spark has nothing to do with this scam and we strongly recommend that you ignore it and do not open the attached file.

Scammers present this email as a message regarding a monthly bill. They inform recipients that they must pay $767.64 for services provided by Spark. More detailed information is supposedly provided in the "2413610029_25_09_2019.doc" file attached to the email.

In fact, this is a malicious document that proliferates Emotet malware. Cyber criminals use this software to steal sensitive information such as logins, passwords and details relating to victims' browsing activities.

Stolen information could be used to access various accounts (including banking, email, and others) and make transactions, purchases, proliferate emails that contain malicious attachments, and so on. Furthermore, Emotet is a trojan-type program, and thus can open "backdoors" for other high-risk malicious software.

Therefore, it could be used to infect computers with additional malware. In summary, opening a file attached to this scam email could lead to serious problems: victims might experience data/financial loss, identity theft, problems with privacy, and other issues. You are strongly advised to leave this attachment unopened and ignore emails of this type in the future.

Threat Summary:

Name	Spark spam
Threat Type	Trojan, password-stealing virus, Banking malware, Spyware.
Hoax	Scammers present this email as a letter regarding a monthly payment for Spark's services.
Attachment(s)	2413610029_25_09_2019.doc (its name may vary)
Detection Names	Avast (VBA:Downloader-BLN [Trj]), AVG (VBA:Downloader-BLN [Trj]), Microsoft (Trojan:O97M/Sonbokli.A!cl), Symantec (ISB.Downloader!gen279), 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	Emotet
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.

"Pipeline Supplies & Services CO.WLL Email Virus", "Indofuels Email Virus", and "Transcoal Pacific Email Virus" are just some examples of other scams that cyber criminals use to proliferate malicious programs. Typically, computers are infected when recipients open included attachments or web links.

Some examples of malware that cyber criminals spread through emails are Adwind, Pony, FormBook, and AZORult. There are many other malicious programs that can be distributed in this way.

How did "Spark Email Virus" infect my computer?

In this particular case, cyber criminals attach a Microsoft Office document (2413610029_25_09_2019.doc, which could be named differently). If opened, the document asks for permission to enable editing/enable macros commands. Giving malicious documents this permission allows them to install malware, in this case, Emotet.

Note, however, MS Office files are not the only files that can be used to proliferate malicious software. Other examples are JavaScript files, archives such as ZIP, RAR, executable (.exe) files, and so on. In any case, attached files cannot cause damage (install malware) without first being opened.

How to avoid installation of malware

To keep your computer safe from malware attacks, avoid opening email attachments that are presented in irrelevant emails, especially when they are sent from unknown/suspicious addresses. Web links in emails of this type should not be opened. Download software from official, trustworthy websites and direct download links only.

Third party software downloaders, installers, Peer-to-Peer networks such as torrent clients, eMule and other such tools can be used to distribute malware. Therefore, do not download files of programs through/from them. Do not use third party software updaters. Installed software should be updated via implemented functions or tools provided by official developers.

If activation of installed software is not free, it should not be bypassed using unofficial activation ('cracking') tools. These are illegal and can be used to trick people into installing malware. Finally, have reputable anti-spyware or anti-virus software installed and regularly scan the system for threats.

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

Text presented in the "Spark Email Virus" email message:

Subject: Here's this month's Spark bill

Attachment: 2413610029_25_09_2019.doc

This month your services come to $767.64. This amount is due to on 25 Sep 2019

Account # 2413610029

Thanks for being with Spark.

Malicious attachment distributed via "Spark 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 Spark 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.

▼ Show Discussion