Avoid getting scammed by fake "American Express Card Deactivation" emails
Written by Tomas Meskauskas on (updated)
What kind of email is "American Express Card Deactivation"?
After investigating the "American Express Card Deactivation" email, we determined that it is fake. This spam mail aims to steal recipients' American Express accounts by falsely claiming that their cards have been temporarily deactivated.
It must be emphasized that this phishing email is in no way associated with the real American Express Company – a bank holding company and financial services corporation that specializes in payment cards.
"American Express Card Deactivation" email scam overview
The spam email with the subject "Excess Purchase Alert: Confirm Your Card Possession" (may vary) is presented as a notification from American Express. It informs the recipient of a temporary deactivation of their card.
This action was taken by the "fraud department" of American Express as a security measure from unauthorized use. The deactivation was prompted by recently made exorbitant purchases. Authentication is necessary to reactivate the account, and this can be done by logging into the account and verifying it via the link in the email.
It must be reiterated that all the information provided by this letter is false, and this mail is not associated with the actual American Express Company or any other legitimate entities.
This spam campaign promotes a phishing website disguised as the sign-in page for American Express. Attempts to sign in through this webpage expose the account's credentials to scammers.
The cyber criminals can then steal the compromised account and use it to perform fraudulent financial activities, such as making unauthorized monetary transactions or online purchases. It is noteworthy that finance-related accounts can also hold vulnerable data that could be used to carry out a variety of nefarious activities.
To summarize, victims of scam mail like "American Express Card Deactivation" can experience severe privacy issues, financial losses, and identity theft.
If you have already provided your log-in credentials to a phishing website – immediately change the passwords of all possibly exposed accounts and inform their official support. Depending on the sensitivity of the compromised information – it might also be necessary to contact the appropriate authorities.
| Name | "American Express Card Deactivation" phishing email |
| Threat Type | Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud |
| Fake Claim | Recipient's card has been deactivated as a protective measure against unauthorized use. |
| Disguise | American Express |
| 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. |
Phishing spam campaign examples
"Citrix Attachments", "Outlook - Someone Logged Into Your Mail Account", "Email Sending Has Been Temporarily Suspended", "TFBank email scam", and "Wells Fargo - Direct Deposit" are merely some examples of phishing emails we have inspected recently.
These campaigns mainly target log-in credentials, personally identifiable information, and finance-related data. However, spam is used to promote various scams and to proliferate malware.
Recipients' trust is gained through a variety of false claims, e.g., ones relating to account issues, suspicious activity, subscription renewals, refunds, invoices, business offers, blackmail attempts, inheritances, lotteries, etc.
Spam mail can be full of grammatical/spelling mistakes or be competently crafted and even believably disguised as messages from genuine entities (e.g., corporations, companies, service providers, organizations, authorities, etc.).
How do spam campaigns infect computers?
Spam campaigns proliferate malware by distributing malicious files as attachments or download links. These files can be documents (PDF, Microsoft Office, Microsoft OneNote, etc.), archives (ZIP, RAR, etc.), executables (.exe, .run, etc.), JavaScript, and so forth.
Once a virulent file is opened – the infection chain is initiated. Some formats need additional actions to jumpstart said processes. For example, Microsoft Office files require users to enable macro commands (i.e., editing/content), while OneNote documents need them to click embedded links or files.
How to avoid installation of malware?
Incoming emails, PMs/DMs, SMSes, and other messages must be approached with caution. We advise against opening attachments or links found in dubious/irrelevant mail, as they can be harmful or infectious.
However, malware is not distributed only through spam mail. Therefore, we recommend vigilance while browsing, as fraudulent and malicious online content usually appears genuine and innocuous.
Furthermore, all downloads must be made from official and trustworthy channels. Another recommendation is to activate and update programs using legitimate functions/tools, as illegal activation ("cracking") tools and third-party updates may contain malware.
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. 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 "American Express Card Deactivation" spam email letter:
Subject: Excess Purchase Alert: Confirm Your Card Possession
American Express Alert - New Additional Card Member
ACCOUNT ENDING: xxxx
Dear Value Customer,
We've temporarily deactivated your card
We are providing this security measures to protect all our customers from an unauthorised use.
Our fraud department has placed a lock on your card due to the excess purchase you made recently.
We wanted to double-check the authenticity of your card account. And protect our customers from an unauthorised use.
Kindly login below to reactivate and verify account ownership
Reactivate//americanexpress/card
Your account security is important to us. We are sorry for any inconviniences.
Thank you for your Card Membership.
Sincerely,
The American Express Fraud protection Team
Screenshot of the fake American Express website promoted by this spam campaign:
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Quick menu:
- What is "American Express Card Deactivation" 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, even if they include details relevant to the recipients. This mail is sent out in massive campaigns – therefore, thousands of users receive identical (or incredibly similar) emails.
I have provided my personal information when tricked by this spam email, what should I do?
If you have provided your account credentials – change the passwords of all possibly compromised accounts and inform their official support without delay. And if the disclosed information was of a different personal nature (e.g., ID card details, passport photos/scans, credit/debit card numbers, etc.) – immediately contact the corresponding authorities.
I have read a spam email but didn't open the attachment, is my computer infected?
Merely opening/reading an email is harmless; systems are infected when malicious attachments or links are opened/clicked.
I have downloaded and opened a file attached to a spam email, is my computer infected?
Whether the device was compromised might depend on the format of the opened file. If it was an executable (.exe, .run, etc.) – the system was most likely infected. However, you might have avoided this if it was a document (.doc, .xls, .pdf, .one, etc.). These formats may need extra interaction (e.g., enabling macros, clicking embedded content, etc.) to begin malware download/installation processes.
Will Combo Cleaner remove malware infections present in email attachments?
Yes, Combo Cleaner can scan devices and eliminate all types of threats. It is capable of detecting and removing most of the known malware infections. It must be emphasized that performing a complete system scan is key since sophisticated malicious programs usually hide deep within systems.
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