How to avoid getting scammed by scammers behind emails like Aramex scam?

What is Aramex email scam?

Phishing emails are used to trick recipients into providing personal information. Most scammers pretend to be legitimate entities and ask to provide credit card details, social security numbers, bank account numbers, and so on. This email is disguised as a letter from Aramex - a legitimate logistics, courier and package delivery company.

Aramex email scam in detail

This phishing email is disguised as a letter regarding a redelivery request. It says that delivery could not be completed due to a lack of information (address) that needs to be provided using the "UPDATE PARCEL" link. That link opens a website asking to provide personal information.

Phishing emails are used to extract login credentials (usernames, email addresses passwords). This email is likely to be used to trick recipients into providing credit card details, bank account numbers, and (or) paying a "redelivery free". That information could be sold to third parties, used to steal identities, money, or for other malicious purposes.

Threat Summary:

Name	Aramex Email Scam
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud
Fake Claim	Parcel could not be delivered due to the incorrect addresss
Disguise	Letter from Aramex
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.

More examples of phishing emails are "Account Security Info Update", "ICS (International Card Services)", and "Gas Sensing Solutions (GSS)". Most of them contain a website link designed to open a deceptive website. It is important to know that emails can be used to trick recipients into infecting their computers with malware.

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Recipients install malware through emails by opening malicious attachments or files downloaded via received website links. Usually, emails used to trick users into infecting their computer contain malicious Microsoft Office documents, PDF documents, JavaScript files, executable files (like EXE), or archive files.

Malicious documents opened with Microsoft Office 2010 and later versions do not infect computers unless users enable editing/content (macros commands) in them. Older MS Office versions do not have the "Protected View" mode. Thus, malicious documents opened with older versions infect computers without asking to enable macros commands.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Installed programs have to be updated or activated through tools or functions that their official developers provide. Files attached to irrelevant emails (or links in emails) received from unknown, suspicious addresses should not be opened. Programs and files should be downloaded only from official, trustworthy pages.

Computers should be scanned with reputable antivirus or anti-spyware programs. It is advisable to scan them regularly.

If you've already opened malicious attachments, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate infiltrated malware.

Appearance of the Aramex email scam:

Text presented in the Aramex email scam:

Subject: Redelivery request - EU264154264 - Aramex

aramex

Redelivery request.

Dear Customer,

Your parcel EU264154264 has arrived at our local post-office.

We are missing information in order to complete your delivery.

Please use the link below to correct your address and pay (1.65 Euro) the fees for new delivery attempt it will arrive to you in next 14 days.
UPDATE PARCEL

Thank you,
Aramex

© Aramex 2021. All rights reserved.

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Quick menu:

• What is Aramex 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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