Do not trust "A Law Case Filed Against Your Company" phishing emails

What kind of email is "A Law Case Filed Against Your Company"?

Having inspected the "A Law Case Filed Against Your Company" email, we can conclude that it is spam that operates as a phishing scam. Letters belonging to this spam campaign target email account credentials. They use fake summons to count in order to trick recipients into providing their email account credentials to a phishing website.

"A Law Case Filed Against Your Company" email scam overview

The spam email with the subject "Court Order" (may vary) informs the recipient that a case has been filed against their company. The letter also indicates the date that the recipient must arrive in court. Attempts to access the attachment supposedly containing details of the lawsuit result in redirects to the phishing site.

The website is presented as an email account sign-in page. The credentials (passwords) entered into it will be disclosed to the scammers behind this spam campaign.

Cyber criminals can variously misuse stolen email accounts. Since emails are often used to register other accounts and services, through them - access/control might be gained over the associated content.

To expound upon this, communication platforms such as emails, social networking services, messengers, and similar - can be used to ask the contacts/friends for loans under the guise of the account's real owner. Additionally, these platforms can be employed to proliferate malware by sharing malicious files or links.

Criminals can use finance-related accounts (e.g., online banking, money transferring, e-commerce, etc.) to make unauthorized transactions or online purchases.

To summarize, by trusting emails like "A Law Case Filed Against Your Company" - users can experience serious privacy issues, financial losses, and identity theft.

If you have already provided your log-in credentials - we advise you to change the passwords of all potentially compromised accounts and contact their official support without delay.

Threat Summary:

Name	A Law Case Filed Against Your Company phishing email
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud
Fake Claim	A lawsuit has been filed against the recipient's 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.
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 spam campaign examples

We have analyzed countless spam emails; "Email Storage Warning Message", "Login Session Authentication", "Webmail Manager email scam", and "Correos email scam" are some of our newest phishing email finds.

In addition to various scams, these letters are also used to distribute trojans, ransomware, cryptocurrency miners, and other malware.

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Spam emails can contain infectious files in the form of attachments or download links. These files can be in various formats, e.g., archives (RAR, ZIP, etc.), executables (.exe, .run, etc.), Microsoft Office and PDF documents, JavaScript, and so on.

Once a virulent file is executed, run, or otherwise opened - malware download/installation is triggered. For example, Microsoft Office documents infect systems by executing malicious macro commands.

How to avoid installation of malware?

We highly recommend being vigilant with incoming mail. The attachments and links found in suspicious/irrelevant emails and messages - must not be opened since that can lead to a system infection.

Additionally, we advise using Microsoft Office versions released after 2010 as they have the "Protected View" mode that prevents automatic execution of macros.

However, malware is not spread exclusively through spam mail. Therefore, we also advise downloading from official/verified channels and activating/updating software with legitimate functions/tools (since illegal activation tools ["cracks"] and fake updaters may contain malware).

Another recommendation is to exercise caution when browsing since fraudulent and malicious content usually appears legitimate.

It is paramount to have a dependable anti-virus installed and kept updated. Security programs must be used to run regular system scans and to remove detected 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 "A Law Case Filed Against Your Company" spam email letter:

Subject: Court Order

Hi ********

Kindly Find a law case filed against your company, you are required to appear in court on the 26th August 2022
with the attached lawsuit on.

1 Attachment | 0912-9337.pdf

Thanks
Court Clerk
Court of California
350 McAllister Street San Francisco, CA

Screenshot of the phishing website promoted by the "A Law Case Filed Against Your Company" spam campaign:

Another example of an email from "A Law Case Filed Against Your Company" spam campaign:

Text presented within:

Subject: #COURT ORDER -Today 5/4/2023 2:45:30 p.m.

 

Dear -,
kindly noted that a case has been filed against your company,
see attached document below for your perusal.

1 Attachment | 01932-231.pdf

Thanks

Court Clerk
Alicia Bagley
aliciabagley@gand.uscourt.gov

Screenshot of the promoted phishing site:

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Quick menu:

• What is A Law Case Filed Against Your Company phishing email?
• 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?

Spam emails are not personal. Therefore, thousands of users receive identical messages.

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

If you have disclosed account log-in credentials - immediately change the passwords of all potentially compromised accounts and inform their official support. And if you have provided other private data (e.g., ID card details, credit card numbers, etc.) - contact relevant authorities without delay.

I have read a spam email but didn't open the attachment, is my computer infected?

No, just opening/reading a spam email will not initiate any system infection processes. Malware download/installation processes are jumpstarted when the attachments/links present in this mail are opened/clicked.

I have downloaded and opened a file attached to a spam email, is my computer infected?

Whether an infection was triggered might depend on the file's format. When opened, executables (.exe, .run, etc.) infect systems almost without fail. However, document formats (.doc, .pdf, .xls, etc.) may need additional interaction (e.g., enabling macro commands) to start downloading/installing malware.

Will Combo Cleaner remove malware infections present in email attachments?

Yes, Combo Cleaner can detect and eliminate almost all known malware infections. It has to be stressed that running a full system scan is paramount - since sophisticated malicious programs tend to hide deep within systems.

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