How to spot malspam campaigns like "Change Of Your Banking Details"

What is "Change Of Your Banking Details"?

After performing a review, it has been concluded that the intent of this email is to trick recipients into opening a malicious attachment. Cybercriminals behind this email use the attached file to distribute a remote administration trojan (RAT) named Agent Tesla. Typically, RATs can be used for multiple malicious purposes.

More about the "Change Of Your Banking Details" malspam campaign

This deceptive email falsely claims to be from Jenny Zumdick. The email states that a request has been made to change banking details and urges the recipient to confirm the attached email's authenticity before proceeding with any remittance. The sender requests a prompt response and provides a contact number: 859-957-1722.

The file attached to this email is named "Change of bank details.xlam" (its name may vary). We found that this file carries Agent Tesla. This RAT serves as a tool designed for the remote access of computers. Despite its promotion as legitimate software available for purchase on an official website, Agent Tesla is maliciously employed by cybercriminals to unlawfully harvest personal data and engage in various harmful activities.

Agent Tesla not only grants threat actors the ability to execute commands on targeted devices but also boasts extensive data-stealing capabilities. Among its functionalities, Agent Tesla can clandestinely record keystrokes through keylogging and illicitly extract information from a wide array of applications, including web browsers, email clients, messaging platforms, download managers, virtual private networks (VPNs), FTP clients, and more.

Cybercriminals can inflict significant harm on their victims using Agent Tesla. This remote access tool enables them to gain unauthorized access to victims' computers, leading to potential data breaches, identity theft, and financial losses.

With its keylogging capabilities, cybercriminals can capture sensitive information like login credentials and personal messages, which can be used for fraudulent activities or sold on the dark web. Additionally, Agent Tesla's ability to execute commands on compromised devices can lead to further damage, such as installing ransomware or other malware on computers.

Threat Summary:

Name	Change Of Your Banking Details malspam campaign
Threat Type	Remote Access Trojan
Hoax	Recipients have requested to change banking details
Attachment(s)	Change of bank details.xlam (its name may vary)
Detection Names (Attachment)	Avast (OLE:CVE-2017-11882 [Expl]), Combo Cleaner (Trojan.GenericKD.69300856), ESET-NOD32 (Probably A Variant Of Win32/Exploit.CVE-2017-11882.C), Kaspersky (UDS:DangerousObject.Multi.Generic), Microsoft (Exploit:O97M/CVE-2017-11882!KZH), Full List Of Detections (VirusTotal)
Symptoms	Remote Administration Trojans are designed to stealthily infiltrate the victim's computer and remain silent, and thus no particular symptoms are clearly visible on an infected machine.
Payload	Agent Tesla
Distribution methods	Infected email attachments, malicious online advertisements, social engineering, software 'cracks'.
Damage	Stolen passwords and banking information, identity theft, the victim's computer added to a botnet, additional infections, monetary loss, and more.
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.

Malspam campaigns in general

Malicious emails with attachments typically exhibit common traits such as social engineering tactics to manipulate recipients, unsolicited and potentially disguised attachments, spoofed sender information to appear trustworthy, and a lack of personalization.

Additionally, these emails often contain grammar and spelling errors, unusual file types that may harbor malware, and urgent calls to action to prompt recipients into taking immediate, often detrimental actions.

More examples of malspam campaigns are "DHL Statement Of Account", "Company Contact", and "ATLANTIS TRANS LOGISTIK".

How did the malware distributed via "Change Of Your Banking Details" infect my computer?

The email includes a malicious .xlam file (e.g., "Change of bank details.xlam") as an attachment. A computer gets infected with Agent Telsa if the recipient opens the .xlam file and enables macros commands. It is important to mention that malicious MS Office documents cannot infect computers unless macros commands are enabled.

However, older MS Office versions (released before 2010) do not have the "Protected View" feature, which means users who open malicious files with older versions infect computers upon opening malicious documents.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Install reputable antivirus and anti-malware software on your computer and keep it up to date. Also, regularly update your operating system, software applications, and web browsers. Be cautious when opening files or clicking on links, especially if they are included in suspicious emails or other messages.

Avoid visiting dubious or untrusted websites (e.g., torrent sites or websites hosting pirated software), and never download software or files from questionable sources. Use official pages and stores as sources for downloading apps and files. Do not trust ads and pop-ups on questionable pages. If you have already opened "Change Of Your Banking Details" attachment, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate infiltrated malware.

Text presented in the "Change Of Your Banking Details" email letter:

Subject:

Dear -,
 

We received an email from you requestinfg for a change of your banking details.

Please confirm that the attached email is from you before we proceed with the remittance.

Your swift response will be highly appreciated.

Regards,

Jenny Zumdick

859-957-1722

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 Change Of Your Banking Details malspam campaign?
• 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?

Criminals send identical letters to a large number of recipients, aiming for someone to be deceived by them. These spam emails lack any personalization or individual targeting.

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

Enabling macro commands is required for the attachment in this email to infect a computer. Therefore, your computer is not infected if you have not activated macro commands after opening the attached file.

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

Merely opening an email is entirely harmless. It is the act of clicking on website links within the email or opening attached files that can potentially lead to system infections.

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

Combo Cleaner possesses the capability to detect and eliminate nearly all known malware infections. It is crucial to understand that highly advanced malware can be intricately entrenched within the system, necessitating a comprehensive system scan for detection and removal.

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