Do not trust fake "FIRST INTERNATIONAL BANK OF ISRAEL" emails

What is the fake "FIRST INTERNATIONAL BANK OF ISRAEL" email?

"FIRST INTERNATIONAL BANK OF ISRAEL Email Scam" refers to a spam campaign - a large-scale operation during which thousands of deceptive emails are sent. The letters distributed through this campaign are disguised as letters from the First International Bank of Israel.

It must be emphasized that these scam emails are in no way associated with the real Israel-based bank, nor is any information provided by them true. The spam letters invite recipients to participate in an unspecified project, which would involve them getting cut of an exorbitant sum of money.

The "FIRST INTERNATIONAL BANK OF ISRAEL" scam emails (subject/title "Re: message Project -200655"; may vary) apologize for the invasion of the recipient's privacy. The sender claims to be the "Chief Internal Auditor Banking Division with FIRST INTERNATIONAL BANK OF ISRAEL".

The letters state that there is a project worth over thirteen million USD, and invites recipients to participate in it and receive a share of the sum. For more information, the fake emails request recipients to respond to the letter. Typically, spam mail of this type operates as phishing scams. In other words, they target sensitive data, most commonly - personally identifiable and financial information.

To elaborate, users may be requested to provide their full names, addresses, emails, telephone numbers, banking account details, credit card numbers, and so forth. The gathered data can be monetized by being shared with and/or sold to third-parties (potentially, cyber criminals). Financial information (especially online bank log-in credentials - usernames/passwords) can be used by cyber criminals to make fraudulent transactions and/or online purchases.

Often, victims of these scams are requested to pay bogus fees (e.g., make payments for fake transactions). This can be employed as a means to directly generate revenue and/or as an alternative method of gathering financial data.

The latter can be achieved by requesting victims to use dubious payment gateways, which operate as phishing scams - by recording information entered into them. To summarize, by trusting the "FIRST INTERNATIONAL BANK OF ISRAEL" scam letters, users can experience severe privacy issues, financial losses, and even identity theft.

Threat Summary:

Name	FIRST INTERNATIONAL BANK OF ISRAEL Email Scam
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud
Fake Claim	Scam emails invite recipients to participate in a project worth 13 million USD
Disguise	Scam emails are disguised as letters from the First International Bank of Israel
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.

"Undelivered Mails", "BANCO BPM", "E-mail Blacklist", "New App(s) Have Access To Your Microsoft Account", and "I am a professional programmer who specializes in hacking" are some examples of scam emails. The letters sent through these mass-scale operations - are usually presented as "official", "urgent", "priority", and similar.

However, spam emails are not used just for phishing and other scams; they are also employed to proliferate malware (e.g., trojans, ransomware, cryptocurrency miners, etc.). Due to how widespread spam mail is, it is strongly advised to exercise caution with incoming emails.

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Systems are infected via virulent files distributed through spam campaigns. The scam emails can contain download links of such files, or they are simply attached to the letters.

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

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

However, newer versions have "Protected View" mode that prevents automatic execution of macros. Instead, users can manually enable macro commands (i.e., editing/content), and they are warned of the potential risks.

How to avoid installation of malware?

To avoid infecting the device via spam mail, suspicious and irrelevant emails must not be opened - especially any attachments or links present in them. Aside from spam campaigns, malware is also spread through untrustworthy download channels (e.g., Peer-to-Peer sharing networks, unofficial and free file-hosting websites, etc.), illegal activation tools ("cracks"), and fake updates.

Therefore, all downloads must be performed from official and verified sources. Furthermore, software must be activated and updated with tools/functions provided by legitimate developers.

It is paramount to have a dependable anti-virus/anti-spyware installed and kept updated. These programs have to be used to run regular system scans and remove detected/potential threats.

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 "FIRST INTERNATIONAL BANK OF ISRAEL" scam email letter:

Subject: Re: message Project -200655

 

I am sorry to have invaded your privacy like this. I am Ms. Ramona Caswell; I am the Chief Internal Auditor Banking Division with FIRST INTERNATIONAL BANK OF ISRAEL LTD (FIBI), Tel Aviv branch, Israel. I have a project of $13,609,000.00USD that I would love to introduce and share with you. Kindly respond back to me and I will explain more to you.

 

Regards,
Ms. Ramona Caswell
Chief Internal Auditor
Banking Division
FIBI BANK ISRAEL.

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Quick menu:

• What is FIRST INTERNATIONAL BANK OF ISRAEL 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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