Do not click the link in the CMA CGM phishing email

What is CMA CGM email scam?

Typically, scammers use phishing emails to extract personal information from recipients. In most cases, they attempt to trick recipients into providing credit card details, social security numbers, login credentials, and other sensitive information. Most scammers disguise phishing emails as letters from legitimate companies.

CMA CGM phishing email in detail

Scammers behind this phishing email are pretending to be a French container transportation and shipping company called CMA CGM. They claim that a file attached to this email is a bill of lading issued by the company to acknowledge receipt of cargo for shipment. Their goal is to trick recipients into opening the attached file.

The file attached to this email is named "CMA-CGM Online Receipt.html" (its name may vary in other email variants). It is designed to open a fake CMA CGM sign in website asking to enter login credentials (email address and a password). Data entered on this page gets sent to a remote server controller by scammers.

Typically, scammers try to trick users into providing login credentials so they could use their accounts to make fraudulent purchases, transactions, access personal data, steal identities, distribute malicious programs, send spam, and so on. Therefore, it is strongly recommended not to trust phishing emails.

It is important to mention that stolen login credentials (usernames, email addresses, passwords) could be sold to third parties or used to access other accounts. It is common that scammers try to use obtained login credentials to steal more accounts from users who use the same usernames, passwords for multiple accounts.

Threat Summary:

Name	CMA CGM Email Scam
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud
Fake Claim	File attached to the email contains a bill of lading
Attachment	CMA-CGM Online Receipt.html (its name may vary)
Detection Names (Attachment)	Avast (Other:SNH-gen [Phish]), BitDefender (Trojan.Script.GenericKDZ.1174), ESET-NOD32 (HTML/Phishing.Gen), Fortinet (HTML/GenericKDZ.1174!tr), GData (Trojan.Script.GenericKDZ.1174), Full List Of Detections (VirusTotal)
Disguise	Letter from the CMA CGM company
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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Phishing emails in general

In conclusion, phishing emails are used to trick recipients into providing sensitive information (like credit card details, passwords). In most cases, recipients who fall for such scams cannot access their online accounts, suffer monetary loss, get their identities stolen, or encounter other issues.

More examples of phishing emails are "Process The Order Attached Email Scam", "FIRST INTERNATIONAL BANK OF ISRAEL Email Scam", "DBS Bank Email Scam". It is important to mention that scammers can use email as a tool to trick recipients into making money transactions, purchases, or installing malicious software on their computers.

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

When emails are used to trick recipients into infecting their computers, they contain a malicious attachment or website link. In one way or another, the main purpose of these emails is to trick recipients into opening a malicious file. Typically, files in emails of this type are disguised as important documents.

Typically, cybercriminals try to trick recipients into opening a malicious Microsoft Office or PDF document, ZIP, RAR, or another archive file, executable file like EXE, JavaScript file. It is worth mentioning that malicious documents opened with Microsoft Office 2010 and newer need permission to install malware.

More precisely, documents opened with the aforementioned Microsoft Office versions do not install malware unless users enable macros commands (editing or content) in them. Although, older MS Office versions do not have the "Protected View" mode and infect operating systems automatically.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Installed software should never be updated or activated with unofficial, third-party tools - those tools can be malicious, and it is not legal to use cracking tools to activate licensed software (or use installers for cracked software). Programs should be updated and activated with tools provided by the official developers.

Also, it is strongly advisable not to trust irrelevant emails that have some file attached to them or include a website link. Usually, emails of this type come from unknown, suspicious addresses. It is common that cybercriminals send them to trick recipients into opening malicious files and links.

Software (or files) should be downloaded from official pages and via direct download links. It is not advisable to use Peer-to-Peer networks, third-party downloaders (or installers), unofficial pages, etc. It is possible for them to be used to distribute malicious programs.

Additionally, it is recommended to scan computers for threats regularly and do it with a reputable antivirus or anti-spyware suite. Installed security software should be kept 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 CMA CGM email:

Subject: CMA-CGM Receipt for ********

Dear Consignee,

Please find attached your Bill of Lading for the current shipment heading to your port.
Shipping customer advised us to contact your email  ********  as the
consignee/receiver of the goods in transit.
ETA of cargo also included in the attached file. Download to view and also print a copy.

Thank you for your support.

Best regards,
The CMA CGM Group
CMA CGM | A world leader in shipping and logistics.

Screenshot of the fake CMA CGM sign in page:

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Quick menu:

• What is CMA CGM 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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