Do not trust the AlWasail Industrial Company email scam

What is AlWasail Industrial Company email scam?

Typically, scammers behind phishing emails attempt to trick recipients into providing sensitive information. Usually, their goal is to deceive recipients into opening some shady website and entering personal information on it or sending that information directly via email.

Most scammers attempt to extract credit card details, bank account numbers, login credentials (e.g., email addresses, usernames, passwords), social security numbers, etc. It is noteworthy that most phishing emails masquerade as official letters from legitimate companies.

Scammers behind this phishing email pretending to be representatives of Alwasail, a company that manufactures polyethylene pipes and fittings.

Their email is disguised as a letter regarding a request for quotation (RFQ), payment advice, and contains two attachments (PDF documents named "RFQ fir HDEP Pipes.pfd" and "Advise Payment.pdf", their names may vary in other email variants).

After opening those documents, they ask to enter login credentials to view them.

Judging by the title of the browser tab that is supposed to be used to view the attached PDF documents, scammers behind this phishing email attempt to trick recipients into providing their Office 365 login credentials (email address and password used to sign in to Office 365). It is likely that after receiving login credentials, scammers would use them to access files, photos, and other personal files, data.

Depending on accessed data, it may be used to make unauthorized transactions, fraudulent purchases, spread phishing emails, like this one further, send spam, steal identities, and so on. Stolen Office 365 accounts or data stored on them could be sold to third parties (other cybercriminals). Although, it is possible that they target login credentials for other accounts.

It is important to mention that when cybercriminals have access to one account, they try to use the same login credentials to hijack other accounts as well. They often succeed because there are many users who use the same login credentials to log into different accounts.

Threat Summary:

Name	AlWasail Industrial Company Email Scam
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud
Disguise	Letter from AlWasail Industrial Company regarding request for quotation
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.
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There are many examples of phishing emails that cybercriminals use to extract sensitive personal information from unsuspecting recipients. Some examples are "Debt Settlement Email Scam", "Monthly Email Validation Email Scam", "Inode Quota Exceeded Email Scam".

It is important to mention that cybercriminals can use emails as channels to deliver malware, for example, ransomware, various Trojans. Email campaigns used to deliver malware are called malspam campaigns.

More detailed information about the distribution of malware using email as a channel is provided in the next paragraph.

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Cybercriminals deliver malware via email by attaching a malicious file or including a download link for a malicious file. In both cases, their main goal is to trick recipients into downloading and opening a malicious file that is designed to install malware on the operating system.

Usually, malspam campaigns are used to trick recipients into opening malicious Microsoft Office documents, PDF documents, RAR, ZIP or other archive files, JavaScript files, executable files (like .exe). In most cases, opened attachments (or files downloaded via provided links) install malware after opening them.

Although, it does not apply to documents opened with Microsoft Office 2010 and newer. Those documents do not install malware unless users enable content (macros commands) in them.

It is important to mention that malicious documents opened with older MS Office versions do not ask users whether they want to enable editing/content and infect a computer without needing any further user interference. It is because older versions do not have the "Protected View" mode.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Received emails that contain links or attachments should be analyzed. If such emails are not relevant and sent from suspicious addresses, then they should be ignored. There is always a high change that an email of this kind would be used by cybercriminals to distribute malware.

Programs and files should be downloaded using only legitimate, reliable sources, such as official websites and direct links. It is not recommended to open files downloaded from unofficial websites, via third party downloaders, Peer-to-Peer networks like torrent clients, eMule, and so on.

Installed software has to be updated, activated with tools or functions that its official developers have designed. None of the other tools are trustworthy, third-party activation or updating tools often are bundled with malware. Also, it is against the law to use such tools to activate licensed software.

The operating system should have a reputable antivirus or anti-spyware software installed on it. It is recommended to scan the system for threats on a regular basis. If you've already opened malicious attachments, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate infiltrated malware.

Text presented in the AlWasail Industrial Company scam:

Subject: Re: RFQ for HDPE Pipes

xc for HDEP Pipes.pdf 108 KB
Advise Payment..pdf 63 KB

2 attachments (171 KB)  Preview  Download all

thank you.  hxxps://www.alwasail.com/wp-content/uploads/alwasail-fm-approved-v1.pdf

Saleh A.Al Mushekih
AlWasail Industrial Company

AlWasail Industrial Company
P O Box : 21599,
Riyadh - 11485, Saudi Arabia
Mobile : +966 50 5456357
Email : saleh@alwasail.com
Web : hxxp://www.alwasail.com

Screenshot of the website used to steal login credentials:

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Quick menu:

• What is AlWasail Industrial Company 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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