How to recognize scams like Host Europe phishing email?

What is Host Europe email scam?

The purpose of most phishing emails is to trick recipients into providing personal information (usually through a provided website). These emails often are disguised as letters from legitimate companies or other entities. Scammers behind this email posing as Host Europe - a German company that serves as a web hosting provider.

Host Europe phishing email in detail

Scammers claim that the account hosted by Host Europe has been disabled due to recent activities, and access to it can be restored through the provided "Confirm" hyperlink. That link opens a fake Host Europe login website asking to provide an email (or username) and a password.

Scammers attempt to trick recipients into providing login credentials that could be used to access Host Europe and possibly other accounts (if the same login credentials can be used to access them). Depending on the type of hijacked accounts, they could be used to make fraudulent purchases, transactions, steal identities, and other malicious purposes.

Threat Summary:

Name	Host Europe Email Scam
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud
Fake Claim	Host Europe account has been disabled
Related Domain	moukaddemconstruction[.]com
Detection Names (moukaddemconstruction[.]com)	Fortinet (Phishing), Full List Of Detections (VirusTotal)
Disguise	Important notification from Host Europe
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.

Phishing emails in general

Emails used to trick recipients into providing personal information can have real logos in them, contain real addresses, etc. Usually, recipients are asked to open a website and provide usernames, passwords, credit card details, and other information on it. More examples of similar of "Network Solutions", "Email Removal Notice", "Sparkasse".

Also, cybercriminals can use emails to deliver computer infections. The key difference between phishing emails and malicious emails is that the second type of emails contain a malicious website link or attachment.

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Users infect computers through emails by opening malicious MS Office documents, PDF documents, executable files, JavaScript files, or other files designed to inject malware. Usually, files attached to emails of this type are presented as important, urgent documents.

Malicious documents opened with MS Office 2010 and later versions do not infect computers unless users enable macros commands (content or editing) in them. Older MS Office versions do not include the Protected View mode. Thus, malicious documents opened with those versions infect systems without asking permission to enable macros.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Do not open files or links in irrelevant emails received from unknown senders. There is a high chance that emails of this type (their content) will be malicious. Download files, programs from official pages and via direct links. Update and activate installed programs using tools provided by their official developers. Never use third-party tools for that - can contain malware.

Also, have a reliable antivirus or anti-spyware program installed on a computer and run systems scans regularly. 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 Host Europe email:

Subject: New message lmportant lD#65260415412561154154450045

Host Europe

Your Account has been disabled,

Due to recent activities on your account, we placed a temporary suspension untill you verify your account.
For your security, follow the steps below.

Verification

To restore your account and continue the use and stop further disabling of your account.
Click the link to restore and protect your accounts online.
 
Confirm

Fake Host Europe page asking to provide usarname/email address and password:

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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 Host Europe 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.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Why did I receive this email?

In most cases, phishing emails are not personal. Scammers send the same email to many people hoping that someone will fall for it/provide personal information.

I have provided my personal information when tricked by this email, what should I do?

It depends on the information. Recipients who have provided any account login credentials (like usernames, email addresses, passwords) should change all passwords immediately. Recipients who have provided other personal information, (for example, credit card details, social security numbers) should contact corresponding authorities as soon as possible.

If an email had a file attached to it but didn't open the attachment, is my computer infected?

File or links in emails sent to deliver malware do not infect computers unless recipients open them. Computers get infected through links when recipients open downloaded malicious file.

Will Combo Cleaner remove malware infections that were present in email attachment?

Yes, Combo Cleaner is capable of detecting and eliminating almost all known malware infections. It is recommended to scan the system using a full system scan since malicious programs can be capable of hiding deep in the operating system.

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