Do not trust scam emails claiming that your account will expire soon

What kind of email is "Email Account Will Expire"?

Upon inspection, we determined that "Email Account Will Expire" is spam. This phishing letter targets email log-in credentials by using false claims about the account's pending expiration. Stolen email accounts can be utilized for a variety of malicious purposes, and victims of such scams can experience severe problems.

"Email Account Will Expire" email scam overview

The spam email with the subject "Critical security alert for [recipient's_email_address]" (may vary) states that the recipient's mail account is due to expire soon.

One of the variants listed the time of expiration as "today", but others may provide 48h, 72h, or other timeframes. According to the letter, the recipient has to follow the provided instructions in order to avoid disruptions to the email and associated services.

It must be emphasized that all this information is false, and this mail is not associated with any legitimate service providers.

Once "RESOLVE ISSUE NOW" is clicked, the user is redirected to a phishing site that imitates their email sign-in page. Hence, the website's appearance will vary based on the recipient's email service provider.

Log-in credentials (or other sensitive details) entered into phishing sites are recorded and sent to cyber criminals. The threat exceeds the loss of an email, as these accounts are typically used to register other content – hence, it may get hijacked as well.

To expand upon the potential misuse, scammers can steal the owners' identities of socially-oriented accounts (e.g., emails, social networking, social media, chats, messengers, etc.) – and ask the contacts/friends/followers for loans or donations, promote scams, and spread malware by sharing malicious links or files.

Furthermore, confidential/compromising content discovered on hijacked data storage or similar platforms could be used for blackmail or other nefarious purposes. What is more, stolen finance-related accounts (e.g., online banking, money transferring, e-commerce, digital wallets, etc.) can be used to make fraudulent transactions or online purchases.

To summarize, by trusting an email like "Email Account Will Expire" – users may experience severe privacy issues, financial losses, and even identity theft.

If you have already disclosed your account credentials – change the passwords of all potentially exposed accounts and inform their official support without delay.

Threat Summary:

Name	"Email Account Will Expire" phishing email
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud
Fake Claim	Recipient's email account will expire soon and actions must be taken to avoid disruptions to the service.
Related Domains	sprayview.co[.]nz
Detection Names (sprayview.co[.]nz)	Combo Cleaner (Phishing), CRDF (Malicious), CyRadar (Malicious), ESET (Phishing), Fortinet (Phishing), Full List Of Detections (VirusTotal)
Serving IP Address (sprayview.co[.]nz)	185.184.154.1
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

"Account(s) Lost IMAP/POP3 Coverage", "DPD Online Confirmation Must Be Made", and "Amazon - Your Account Has Been Locked" are just a few examples of phishing emails we have examined recently.

Letters of this kind predominantly target the log-in credentials of various accounts, personally identifiable details, and finance-related information. However, it must be mentioned that other types of scams are promoted through spam campaigns as well. Additionally, this mail is used to distribute malware.

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Spam campaigns proliferate malware by distributing malicious files as attachments or download links. These files can be in various formats, e.g., archives (ZIP, RAR, etc.), executables (.exe, .run, etc.), documents (PDF, Microsoft Office, Microsoft OneNote, etc.), JavaScript, and so forth.

Once a virulent file is opened – the infection process is triggered. Note that some formats may require additional actions to jumpstart system infection chains. For example, Microsoft Office files need users to enable macro commands (i.e., editing/content), while OneNote documents require them to click embedded files or links.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Due to how widespread spam emails are and how well-made they can be – we strongly recommend exercising caution with incoming mail. Attachments or links found in suspicious messages must not be opened, as they can be infectious. We advise using Microsoft Office versions released after 2010 since their "Protective View" mode prevents automatic macro execution.

However, malware is not spread exclusively via spam mail. Therefore, we also recommend being careful while browsing, as fraudulent and malicious online content usually appears legitimate and innocuous.

Additionally, all downloads must be made from official and trustworthy channels. Another recommendation is to activate and update software using functions/tools provided by genuine developers, as illegal activation tools ("cracks") and third-party updaters may contain malware.

We must stress that having a reputable anti-virus installed and kept updated is paramount to device integrity and user safety. Security programs must be used to perform regular system scans and to remove detected threats and 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 "Email Account Will Expire" spam email letter:

Subject: Critical security alert for ********

 

Dear  ********,

 

Your account ******** will expire today. In order to avoid disruption to your website, email, and any other associated services. Follow  instruction below to resolve now.

RESOLVE ISSUE NOW

Sincerely,

© ******** Security Team

Screenshot of the phishing website promoted by the "Email Account Will Expire" spam campaign:

Another example of an email from "Email Account Will Expire" spam campaign:

Text presented within:

Subject: FINAL WARNING!!! Identity Confirmation Request from ********

 

******** Admin Support!

Dear ******** ,

This is a final notification message sent from our database that your email account
(********) will expire within the next 48 hours and access to your account might be terminated.

To continue using your account ********, Kindly validate your email now.

Update My Account Here.

Thanks,

******** Administrator

This email was sent to ********
Organization: ******** Corporation. All rights reserved. @ 2024

Screenshot of the promoted phishing site:

Another example of an email from "Email Account Will Expire" spam campaign:

Text presented within:

Subject: Email Expiry Notification

 

Hello -,

Your Email will expire any moment from now 7/2/2024 11:51 AM
Kindly confirm your email to continue using the same password.

Confirm Email Now →

Note: Support will not be responsible for any login malfunction after this warning and no verification response.

Thanks and Regards,

Support © 2024 Secured Service;

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Quick menu:

• What is "Email Account Will Expire" 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. Cyber criminals distribute them in mass-scale operations with the hopes that at least some recipients will fall for the scams.

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

If you have provided your log-in credentials – change the passwords of all potentially compromised accounts and inform their official support. However, if the disclosed information was of a different personal nature (e.g., ID card details, passport scans/photos, credit card numbers, etc.) – immediately contact the corresponding authorities.

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

Infections are triggered only when malicious attachments or links are opened; reading an email poses no such threat.

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.) – the system was most likely compromised. However, you may have avoided an infection if it was a document (.doc, .xls, .one, .pdf, etc.). These formats might require extra actions (e.g., enabling macro commands, clicking embedded content, etc.) to start downloading/installing malware.

Will Combo Cleaner remove malware infections present in email attachments?

Yes, Combo Cleaner can detect and eliminate practically all known malware infections. It must be emphasized that running a full system scan is essential since sophisticated malicious programs usually hide deep within systems.

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