Avoid losing your email account via fake "Expiry Notice" emails

What kind of email is "Expiry Notice"?

After inspecting the "Expiry Notice" email, we determined that it is spam. This bogus mail informs that the recipient's email account will expire within 48 hours. The scam letter redirects the recipient to a phishing website that imitates their email sign-in page.

"Expiry Notice" email scam overview

This spam email states that the recipient's account will be terminated within 48 hours. The letter instructs to renew it in order to avoid interruptions to the email and other related services. If the deadline is missed, the account will enter into a "Redemption Grace Period", and the mailbox will cease working.

As mentioned in the introduction, this email is fake, and it is in no way associated with any legitimate service providers or other entities.

This mail promotes a phishing site masquerading as the recipient's email sign-in webpage. It records entered log-in credentials, which are then used to steal the exposed accounts. Furthermore, through a hijacked email – cyber criminals may steal the content registered via it.

To elaborate, scammers can steal the identities of social account owners (e.g., emails, social media, messengers, etc.) and ask the contacts/friends/followers for loans or donations, promote scams, and spread malware by sharing malicious files/links.

Hijacked finance-related accounts (e.g., online banking, money transferring, e-commerce, digital wallets, etc.) can be used to make fraudulent transactions and/or online purchases.

To summarize, victims of scam mail like "Expiry Notice" can experience severe privacy issues, financial losses, and even identity theft.

If you have already entered your log-in credentials into a phishing website – immediately change the passwords of all possibly exposed accounts and inform their official support.

Threat Summary:

Name	"Expiry Notice" phishing email
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud
Fake Claim	Recipient's email account will be terminated in 48 hours.
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 numerous spam emails; "Quote Order", "You Have Used All Your Available Storage Space", "You Have eFax Message", and "Email Requires A Mandatory Authentication" are just a few examples of ones used for phishing.

Spam mail is used to promote various scams and even to proliferate malware. These letters may even be presented as incredibly convincing messages from genuine companies, organizations, institutions, authorities, service providers, and other entities.

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Spam campaigns are common in malware proliferation. These emails/messages can include malicious files as attachments or download links. Virulent files can be in various formats, e.g., executables (.exe, .run, etc.), archives (ZIP, RAR, etc.), documents (Microsoft Office, Microsoft OneNote, PDF, etc.), JavaScript, and so on.

Once such a file is opened – the infection chain is jumpstarted. However, some formats might need additional actions to initiate malware download/installation. For example, Microsoft Office documents require users to enable macro commands (i.e., editing/content), while OneNote files need them to click embedded files/links.

How to avoid installation of malware?

We highly recommend being careful with incoming emails and other messages. Attachments or links found in suspect/irrelevant mail must not be opened, as they can be malicious. It is important to use Microsoft Office versions released after 2010 since their "Protected View" mode prevents automatic macro execution.

It is pertinent to mention that malware is distributed using various techniques. We also advise being cautious while browsing since fraudulent and dangerous online content usually appears legitimate and harmless.

Additionally, all downloads must be performed from official and verified channels. Another recommendation is to activate and update software by using genuine functions/tools, as illegal activation ("cracking") tools and third-party updaters can contain malware.

We must stress the importance of having a reputable anti-virus installed and kept up-to-date. Security software 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 "Expiry Notice" spam email letter:

Subject: [Reference E: BN-78308]: Your ******** Mailbox

    
My Account
48-hour ********  Expiry Notice

Attention

 

Your  ******** will be terminated in 48 hours. In order to avoid disruption to your website, email, and any other associated services, it's important that you renew now.

 

Renew ******** Now

IMPORTANT: Unfortunately, we weren't able to process one or more of your  ******** that are set up for auto-renewal. You will now need to manually renew them.

Email(s) Due for Renewal on October 5th, 2023
Name     Auto-Renewal     Price
********     On     -

 

If a ******** is not renewed on time, it will enter the Redemption Grace Period. During this time your mailbox will stop working, and no changes can be made to the mailbox.

WHY US

MY ACCOUNT

HOW TO RENEW

About Us   |   Support   |   Privacy Policy   |   Terms & Conditions  |  Account Login
Copyright © 2023 ********

This informational email was sent to ********
This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by
E.F.A. Project , and is believed to be clean.

Screenshot of the phishing website promoted by the "Expiry Notice" spam campaign:

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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 "Expiry Notice" 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. This mail is sent out 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 log-in credentials – immediately change the passwords of all possibly exposed accounts and inform their official support. If the revealed information was of a different personal nature (e.g., ID card details, passport photos/scans, credit card numbers, etc.) – contact the appropriate authorities without delay.

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

Reading an email is harmless. System infection processes are triggered when malicious attachments or links are opened/clicked.

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

If the opened file was an executable (.exe, .run, etc.) – most likely, yes – your device has been infected. However, you might have avoided this if it was a document (.doc, .xls, .pdf, .one, etc.). These formats may require additional actions to jumpstart malware download/installation chains (e.g., enabling macro commands, clicking embedded files/links, etc.).

Will Combo Cleaner remove malware infections present in email attachments?

Yes, Combo Cleaner is designed to scan computers and eliminate all manner of threats. It can detect and remove practically all known malware infections. Note that running a complete system scan is paramount since high-end malicious software typically hides deep within systems.

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