Do not be fooled by the UBS INVESTMENT email scam

What is "UBS INVESTMENT Email Scam"?

Scammers behind this email scam attempt to trick recipients into providing certain information by disguising the message as a business proposal and offering a share of the profits. Do not trust this scam or send any of the requested information to the criminals responsible.

This email is disguised as a message from Dr. Calvin Edwin, who supposedly works in the UBS Investment bank and has discovered an abandoned sum of £15 million (GBP) belonging to one of the customers who apparently died in a car accident.

The main purpose of this scam is to trick recipients into believing that they can become beneficiaries of 40% of the aforementioned sum by cooperating in the execution of a legitimate arrangement. Firstly, recipients are asked to provide their full name, mobile number, contact address and date of birth, and then await further instructions.

It is very likely that recipients who contact these scammers will be asked for other, sensitive details (credit card details, login credentials) as well. Commonly, scammers behind such emails attempt to extort information that could be misused to generate revenue in various ways.

By providing the required information, recipients will put themselves at risk of identity theft, monetary loss, problems relating to inline privacy, browsing safety, etc. Therefore, ignore these emails.

Threat Summary:

Name	UBS INVESTMENT Email Scam
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud.
Disguise	This email is disguised as a message regarding a business proposal.
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.

Some more examples similar email scams are "Tokyo Olympics 2020", "Your Google Ads Account Has Been Suspended" and "A File Was Shared With You". 

As mentioned, the messages are sent to deceive unsuspecting recipients into providing various information, which scammers can use to generate revenue. In many cases, cyber criminals use emails to distribute malware as well.

They send emails that contain a website link, which downloads a malicious file, or a malicious attachment, and hope that recipients will execute it. When executed, the rogue file installs malware (e.g., ransomware, Trojan).

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Cyber criminals attempt to deceive users into installing malware through emails by disguising them as legitimate and official. Typically, the emails have malicious files attached to them. When opened, the files cause installation of malicious software. The same applies to files that are downloaded through malicious website links.

Some examples of files that cyber criminals attach to their emails are PDF, Microsoft Office documents, archive files (RAR, ZIP), executable files (.exe), and JavaScript files. Note that malicious MS Office documents infect computers only when people enable editing/content (macros commands).

This applies only to documents that are opened with MS Office 2010 or newer. Older versions do not include Protected View mode and infect computers without asking any permission.

How to avoid installation of malware

You are strongly advised to download files and software only from official websites and via direct download links. Other channels such as third party downloaders and installers, Peer-to-Peer networks (torrent clients, eMule), unofficial pages, free file hosting pages, etc., are often used to distribute malware.

Emails that are received from suspicious, unknown address and contain web links or attachments should not be trusted, especially they are irrelevant. Installed software must be updated and activated only through tools or implemented functions that are designed by official developers.

Unofficial, third party activators, updaters are often designed to infect computers with malicious software. Furthermore, it is illegal to activate any licensed software through unofficial activation ('cracking') tools. Scan the operating system for threats regularly using reputable antivirus or anti-spyware software that is up to date.

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 "UBS INVESTMENT Email Scam" email message:

Subject: Business proposal

From Dr. Calvin Edwin
Dear Friend.

 

I am Dr. Dr. Calvin Edwin from Brondesbury,North West London, here in England. I work for UBS INVESTMENT Bank London branch. I am writing you from my office that will be of an immense benefit for both of us. In my department, being a member of the Group Executive Com-mittee and Chief Risk Officer (Greater London Regional Office), I discovered an abandoned sum of £15 Million Great British Pounds Sterling (Fifteen Million Great British Pounds) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers Late Mr. Steve Allen who unfortunately lost his life in a car accident including his wife and only daughter.

 

The choice of contacting you is aroused from the geographical nature of where you live, particularly due to the sensitivity of this transaction. The Bank officials have been waiting for any of the relatives to come-up for this claim but nobody has done that. I personally have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives, I seek your consent to present you as the next of kin /Will Beneficiary to the deceased of this fund so that the proceeds of this account valued at £15 Million Pounds will be transferred into your bank account as the next of kin to Late Mr. Steve Allen.

 

This will be disbursed or shared in these percentages, 60% for me and 40% to you. I have secured all necessary legal documents that will be used to back up this claim we are making. All I need to do is to fill in your names to the documents and legalize it in the court here to prove you as the legitimate beneficiary of the fund.

 

All I require now is your honest Co-operation, Confidentiality and Trust to enable us sees this transaction through. I guarantee you that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law. I want you to understand that I have worked in this bank for 17 years, and I have been able to secure all legal documents to enable you inherit this fund

 

Please provide me the following: as we have few days to run it through this is very URGENT PLEASE.

 

1. Full Name
2. Your Direct Mobile Number
3. You’re Contact Address
4. Date of Birth

 

Having gone through a methodical search, I decided to contact you hoping that you will find this deal interesting. Please on your confirmation of this message and indicating your interest I will furnish you with more information. Endeavor to let me know your decision as soon as possible.

 

Best Regards,
Dr. Calvin Edwin

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 UBS INVESTMENT 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