Do not trust the fake email claiming your account was used to send 300 emails

What kind of email is "Just Finished Sending 300 E-mails"?

After inspecting the "Just Finished Sending 300 E-mails" letter, we determined that it is spam. This fake notification informs recipients that their account has been used to send a high volume of emails. The spam letter aims to trick users into providing their email account log-in credentials to a phishing website.

"Just Finished Sending 300 E-mails" email scam overview

The spam email with the subject "Final Warning: Your E-Mail account has just sent 300 E-Mails" (may vary) informs the recipient that their mail account has reached its daily limit. The fake letter speculates that either the user has sent more emails than usual or their account has been compromised and used to send spam.

The recipient is advised to wait for the next day before sending more messages if the aforementioned activity is not suspicious. If it is, the user is to check whether the last email sent matches their IP address; should it not – they are to press the "VERIFY" button and re-login.

When we clicked this button, it resulted in a redirect to a phishing site presented as an email account sign-in page. The passwords provided to this webpage will be disclosed to the scammers behind this spam campaign. In addition to losing their email accounts, victims can have the content registered through the mail stolen as well.

Cyber criminals can use social accounts (e.g., emails, messengers, social networking, social media, etc.) to assume the owner's identity and ask their friends/contacts for loans, promote spam/scams, or spread malware by sharing malicious files/links. Stolen finance-related accounts (e.g., online banking, e-commerce, money transferring, digital wallets, etc.) can be used to make fraudulent transactions and/or online purchases.

To summarize, by trusting an email like "Just Finished Sending 300 E-mails" – users may experience system infections, severe privacy issues, financial losses, and even identity theft.

If you have already entered your log-in credentials into a phishing website – change the password of all potentially compromised accounts and contact their official support without delay.

Threat Summary:

Name	"Just Finished Sending 300 E-mails" phishing email
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud
Fake Claim	Recipient's email account was used to send 300 emails and has reached its daily limit.
Related Domains	secizle[.]com
Detection Names (secizle[.]com)	Combo Cleaner (Malware), Comodo Valkyrie Verdict (Phishing), CRDF (Malicious), Fortinet (Phishing), G-Data (Malware), Lionic (Phishing), Full List Of Detections (VirusTotal)
Serving IP Address (secizle[.]com)	88.209.254.176
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

"Messages Delivery Failure", "A Request To Disable Your Email Has Been Received", and "Session Validation Error" are just a couple examples of phishing emails that we have inspected recently.

Spam mail can facilitate a wide variety of scams, and it is used to proliferate trojans, ransomware, and other types of malware. These letters can be very basic or competently disguised as legitimate notifications/warnings. Spam can be presented as messages from existing companies, service providers, organizations, authorities, and other entities.

Due to how widespread spam mail is, we strongly recommend exercising caution with incoming emails, PMs/DMs, SMSes, and other messages.

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Spam emails can contain malicious files as attachments or download links. These files can be Microsoft Office and PDF documents, executables, archives, JavaScript, etc.

When an infectious file is executed, run, or otherwise opened – malware download/installation processes are triggered. For example, Microsoft Office documents infect devices by executing malicious macro commands.

How to avoid installation of malware?

We highly recommend being careful with incoming mail. The attachments and links found in suspicious emails/messages must not be opened since that can result in a system infection. It is important to use Microsoft office versions released after 2010, as they have the "Protected View" mode that prevents automatic macro execution.

However, malware is spread using various methods. Therefore, we also advise downloading only from official and verified sources. Additionally, all programs must be activated and updated using legitimate functions/tools, as illegal activation ("cracking") tools and third-party updaters can contain malware.

It is essential to be vigilant when browsing since fraudulent and malicious online content usually appears ordinary and harmless.

We must stress the importance of having a dependable anti-virus installed and kept updated. Security software must be used to run regular system scans and to remove detected threats/issues. 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 "Just Finished Sending 300 E-mails" spam email letter:

Subject: Final Warning: Your E-Mail account has just sent 300 E-Mails

- has just finished sending 300 E-Mails.

There could be a spammer, your account could be compromised, or you're just sending more E-Mails than usual.

This warning was generated because the daily threshold of 300 E-Mails was hit.
Either wait until tomorrow for the count to be reset, or contact your domain manager.

The IP that sent the last email was:
127.0.0.1

If this is not your IP, or you did not send these emails, please login again to verify your password again
 
VERIFY

================================
Automated Message Generated by DirectAdmin

Screenshot of the phishing website promoted by the "Just Finished Sending 300 E-mails" spam campaign:

Instant automatic malware removal: Manual threat removal might be a lengthy and complicated process that requires advanced IT skills. Combo Cleaner is a professional automatic malware removal tool that is recommended to get rid of malware. Download it by clicking the button below:
▼ 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 "Just Finished Sending 300 E-mails" 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. These letters are sent in massive campaigns – hence, 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 your account credentials – immediately change the passwords of all possibly exposed accounts and inform their official support. And if you have provided other private information (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, opening/reading an email will not result in a system infection. Malware download/installation chains are jumpstarted when malicious attachments/links present in spam mail are opened.

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

Whether your device was infected might depend on the opened file's format. If it was an executable (.exe, .run, etc.) – most likely, yes. However, you might have avoided triggering an infection if it was a document (.doc, .xls, etc.). These formats may need additional user interaction (e.g., enabling macro commands) to begin downloading/installing malware.

Will Combo Cleaner remove malware infections present in email attachments?

Yes, Combo Cleaner is capable of detecting and eliminating practically all known malware infections. It must be mentioned that sophisticated malicious software usually hides deep within systems – therefore, running a complete system scan is crucial.

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