Do not enter credentials on a deceptive page opened through Nexi phishing email

What is Nexi email scam?

Typically, cybercriminals behind phishing emails impersonate legitimate organizations, companies, or other entities with the purpose to trick unsuspecting recipients into providing sensitive information.

Typically, their goal is to extract financial information (e.g., credit card details), login credentials (usernames, email addresses, passwords), social security numbers, or other details. It is common that phishing emails contain a website link designed to open a deceptive website where visitors are asked to enter personal information.

Cybercriminals behind this phishing email impersonate an Italian bank that specializes in payment systems called Nexi. Their goal is to steal login credentials.

As mentioned in the first paragraph, cybercriminals behind this email are pretending to be representatives of the Nexi bank. They claim that some refund request for 113.99 EUR (this number may be different in other variants of this email) has been accepted.

Cybercriminals attempt to trick recipients into believing that they can confirm the refund by logging into the provided website ("Confermare") button. That deceptive website is designed to look like the official Nexi login page.

However, it has nothing to do with the actual bank and is used to steal Nexi account login credentials (email address and password). It is likely that cybercriminals may use stolen accounts to make unauthorized transactions and commit identity theft.

It is important to mention that stolen accounts could be sold to third parties (other cybercriminals) on the darkweb. Another important thing about having login credentials stolen is that cybercriminals may try to use them to access other accounts and steal them as well (if they use the same username or email address and password).

Therefore, it is strongly recommended to inspect received emails that lead to websites asking for personal information and never enter any details without being sure that it is completely safe.

Threat Summary:

Name	Nexi Email Scam
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud
Fake Claim	Refund request has been accepted
Disguise	Email from Nexi bank
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.

There are many examples of phishing emails that cybercriminals use to trick recipients into providing them sensitive information. A couple of those examples are "Account Service Email Scam", "AlWasail Industrial Company Email Scam", and "Debt Settlement Email Scam".

It is important to know that email can be used as a channel to deliver malware. Usually, emails that cybercriminals send to trick recipients into installing malicious software are also disguised as important letters from legitimate companies.

It is common that they are used to deliver ransomware, trojans, cryptocurrency miners.

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Typically, emails that cybercriminals send when they seek to trick recipients into installing malware on their computers contain a malicious attachment or a website link designed to download a malicious file.

In both cases, the main purpose of those emails is to trick recipients into opening a malicious file, for example, a Microsoft Office document, PDF document, executable file like .exe, archive file (like ZIP, RAR), JavaScript file.

In most cases, users install malware after opening a malicious file. Although, documents opened with Microsoft Office 2010 (or later) do not start the installation of malicious software unless users enable macros commands (editing or content).

It is important to mention that older MS Office versions do not have the "Protected View" mode. Therefore, malicious documents opened with those versions install malware without requiring any further user interaction.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Irrelevant emails that are received from a suspicious, unknown address and contain some attachment or website link should are likely to be sent by cybercriminals with the purpose to trick recipients into downloading and opening a file designed to install malware.

Therefore, it is recommended not to trust such emails (open files or links in them). Software should be downloaded only from official web pages and via direct download links.

It is strongly recommended to avoid using Peer-to-Peer networks, third-party downloaders (and installers), unofficial pages, etc., as tools to download or install any software. Installed software must be updated and activated only with implemented functions or tools that official software developers have designed.

It is not legal to activate licensed software with various third-party tools. Also, unofficial updaters and activation tools can be and often are malicious.

The operating system should be scanned for malware and other threats regularly, it is advisable to run scans with a reputable antivirus or anti-spyware suite. Additionally, the installed security suite should be kept be up to date.

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 Nexi email phishing email:

Subject: Il tuo rimborso è pronto! nexi.it

NEXI

Ciao caro,
Riferimento : #58903002695

La tua richiesta di rimborso è stata accettata!

Pagamento rimborsabile totale : 113,99 EUR

Accedi al tuo account nexi e conferma il rimborso!

Confermare

Cardiali saluti,
Nexi.it

© Nexi Payments SpA 2017. All Rights Reserved. Membro del Gruppo IVA Nexi P.IVA 10542790968

Screenshot of the fake Nexi page:

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▼ 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 Nexi 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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