Avoid getting scammed by fake "Posteitaliane" emails

What is the fake "Posteitaliane" email?

"Posteitaliane email scam" refers to a spam campaign - a large-scale operation during which thousands of deceptive emails are sent. Much as the name suggests, these fake "Posteitaliane" letters are disguised as notifications from the Italian Post ("Poste italiane").

The emails claim that recipients have a package waiting for them, and request that they pay the shipping fee. The aim of "Posteitaliane" scam letters is to promote a phishing website that targets financial information.

According to a rough translation, the fraudulent "Posteitaliane" emails (subject/title "Il tuo pacco è arrivato! | Poste.it"; may vary) state that recipients' package has arrived. It will be delivered as soon as the shipping payment is made.

This bogus fee must be paid within 48 hours. The scam letters contain a link, which supposedly leads to the payment webpage. It must be emphasized that the fake emails are in no way associated with the genuine Italian Post, and none of the information provided by these letters is true.

The promoted phishing site appears legitimate and requests users to pay a relatively small fee of 1,79 EUR. By continuing to the page and following its instructions - this sum may be transferred from the bank account to the scammers, but it might be significantly larger as well.

Most importantly, phishing websites operate by recording the information entered into them. This webpage requests users to provide their credit card details.

Scammers can then use this sensitive data to make fraudulent transactions and/or online purchases. Therefore, by trusting the "Posteitaliane" scam emails, users can experience financial losses, severe privacy issues, and even identity theft.

Should attempts to make a payment through the phishing website have already been made, to prevent unauthorized use of the credit card - it is strongly advised to immediately contact the bank's official support.

Threat Summary:

Name	Posteitaliane Email Scam
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud
Fake Claim	Emails claim recipients need to pay a shipping fee to receive their package.
Disguise	Scam emails are disguised as notifications from Poste italiane (Italian Post).
Related Domains	posteitaliane2secure[.]com
Detection Names (posteitaliane2secure[.]com)	BitDefender (Malware), ESTsecurity-Threat Inside (Phishing), Fortinet (Phishing), Kaspersky (Phishing), Sophos (Malicious), Full List Of Detections (VirusTotal)
Serving IP Address (posteitaliane2secure[.]com)	198.54.115.222
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.

"Nexi email scam", "LinkedIn email scam", "Account Service email scam", and "EMS email scam" are a few examples of phishing spam campaigns.

Deceptive emails of this kind can target a wide variety of information, e.g., credit card numbers, bank account details, names, surnames, addresses, emails, telephone numbers, log-in credentials (i.e., usernames and passwords) of various accounts and platforms, etc.

These campaigns are also used to facilitate different types of scam, and to proliferate malware (e.g., trojans, ransomware, cryptocurrency miners, etc.). Due to how widespread spam mail is, it is highly recommended to exercise caution with incoming emails.

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Systems are infected via virulent files distributed through spam campaigns. The files can be attached to the emails, and/or the letters can contain download links of malicious content.

Infectious files can be in various formats, e.g., Microsoft Office and PDF documents, archives (RAR, ZIP, etc.), executables (.exe, .run, etc.), JavaScript, and so forth. When the files are executed, run, or otherwise opened - the infection chain (i.e., malware download/installation) is initiated.

For example, Microsoft Office documents cause infections by executing malicious macro commands. This process begins the moment a document is opened - in Microsoft Office versions released before 2010.

Versions released after - have "Protected View" mode, which prevents automatic execution of macros. Instead, users are asked to enable editing/content (i.e., macro commands) and alerted of the potential risks.

How to avoid installation of malware?

To avoid infecting the system via spam mail, it is advised against opening dubious and irrelevant emails - especially any attachments or links found in them. It is recommended to use Microsoft Office versions released after 2010.

Aside from spam campaigns, malware is also spread through untrustworthy download channels (e.g., unofficial and free file-hosting websites, Peer-to-Peer sharing networks, and other third-party downloaders), illegal activation ("cracking") tools, and fake updates.

Therefore, it is important to use only official and verified download channels. Furthermore, all programs must be activated and updated with tools/functions provided by legitimate developers.

To ensure device integrity and user safety, it is crucial to have a dependable anti-virus/anti-spyware suite installed and updated. This software has to be used to perform regular system scans and remove detected threats and issues.

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 "Posteitaliane" scam email letter:

Subject: Il tuo pacco è arrivato! | Poste.it

 

Posteitaliane

 

Gentile cliente,

 

Il tuo pacco è arrivato e ti verrà consegnato una volta pagato il pagamento della spedizione richiesto! conferma il pagamento entro le prossime 48 ore per convalidare il tuo pacco!

 

Fare clic sul collegamento per visitare la pagina di pagamento.

 

hxxps://www.poste[.]it/package/1119627788404

 

Cordiali saluti,

 

Poste italiane

 

© Poste Italiane 2021 - Partita iva: 01114601006

Screenshot of the phishing website promoted by "Posteitaliane" spam campaign;

Initial page:

Second page:

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 Posteitaliane 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