How to spot phishing campaigns like "Your Email Has Been Restricted"

What kind of scam is "Your Email Has Been Restricted"?

We inspected this email and concluded that the scammers behind it aim to trick recipients into providing them personal information. Emails of this type are called phishing emails. This one is disguised as a letter from an email service provider. It instructs recipients to validate their identity via the provided phishing website.

"Your Email Has Been Restricted" phishing email in detail

This email claims that the email account has been restricted due to behavior violating the terms of service of the email service provider. It states that recipients will not be able to receive, send, upload or download new files from the specified date and time.

The purpose of this email is to lure recipients into clicking the "VALIDATE YOUR IDENTITY" button and providing their email account login credentials on the opened deceptive (fake) website. The design of the opened page depends on the recipient's email address (e.g., if the recipient uses Yahoo Mail, then that deceptive page shows the Yahoo logo).

Threat Summary:

Name	Your Email Has Been Restricted Email Scam
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud
Fake Claim	Email account has been restricted
Disguise	Letter from the email service provider
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.

Similar scams in general

The main similarities between such emails are that scammers behind them pretend to be legitimate companies, organizations, or other entities and ask recipients to open provided links (or send them personal information via email). Usually, links in such emails open fake websites requesting to enter login credentials, credit card details, or other sensitive details.

Examples of similar emails are "Password Is Scheduled To Expire Email Scam", "DHL Express - CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE Email Scam", and "Error From Your Mail Server Email Scam". It is important to mention that emails can also be used to deliver malware.

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Emails used to deliver malware are similar to phishing emails but contain a malicious link or attachment. Cybercriminals behind such emails aim to trick users into executing malware (opening a malicious file). Usually, they use malicious MS Office, PDF documents, JavaScript files, ISO files, executables, or archive files to distribute malware.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Do not download files and software from unreliable sources or open attachments (and links) in emails without knowing if it is safe (especially when emails are irrelevant and sent from unknown addresses). Use official pages and stores as sources for downloading software (and files).

Also, update and activate the installed software (and the operating system) with tools/functions provided by its official developers. Use reputable antivirus software for computer protection and scan the operating system with it 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 "Your Email Has Been Restricted" email letter:

Subject: EMAIL VALIDATION

Your Email Has Been Restricted

Why did this happen?,   

We have placed a restriction on your e-mail -  because we detected
behavior that appears to violate our terms of service. You will not be able to receive, send. upload and download new files from 10/10/2022 4:24:35 a.m.

What to do if you believe this action was an error? if you believe your e-mail has been
restricted in error, please follow below link to validate your identity to enable us lift restriction.

VALIDATE YOUR IDENTITY
 
Thank You
2022   -  Support | User Agreement | Privacy Policy | Copyright Policy.

Screenshot of the fake login page:

Another example of email restriction-themed spam email promoting a phishing site:

Text presented within:

Subject: Restriction Notice!

 

Order number: 087/3932/********/4230/301
Mail Ref: ;

Attn: ********

Your e-mail ********  will be restricted from receiving mails  and sent mails will be placed on hold on Wednesday, November 9, 2022, due to update failure.
 
Please update and confirm your email activity, visit ********.

Thanks

Support Team

Screenshot of the promoted phishing site:

Another example of an email from "Your Email Has Been Restricted" spam campaign:

Text presented within:

Subject: Mail delivery failed: returning message to sender

 

Your email has been restricted

Why does this happen?

We've restricted your e-mail ********   because we detected behavior that appears to violate our terms of service. You will not be able to receive, send, upload and download new files from 6/11/2024 3:11:31 a.m.

What to do if you believe this action is an error? If you believe your e-mail has been restricted by mistake, please click the link below to verify your identity to allow us to lift the restriction.

VERIFY YOUR IDENTITY

Thank You,
© 2024 ******** Support | User Agreement | Privacy Policy | Copyright Policy.

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Quick menu:

• What is Your Email Has Been Restricted 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?

Scammers send the same letter to all recipients hoping that someone will fall for it. Their emails are never personal. Most scammers obtain email addresses via phishing pages or when they get leaked after data breaches.

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

It depends on the type of provided information. For example, when scammers extract credit card details, ID card information, social security numbers, etc., it is recommended to contact the corresponding authorities. When scammers obtain passwords, it is recommended to change all passwords (as soon as possible).

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

Archive files (e.g., ZIP, RAR files) cannot infect computers unless users open extracted malicious files. MS Office documents infect computers after users enable macros commands. Most executable files inject malware right after users execute them. It depends on the type of file.

I have read the email but did not open the attachment, is my computer infected?

No, it is safe to open emails even when they contain malicious links or attachments.

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

Yes, Combo Cleaner will detect and remove malware (it can detect almost all known malware). Remember that high-end malware can be designed to hide deep in the system. For this reason, running a full system scan is a must.

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