Avoid getting scammed by fake "Your Statement Reviewed And Paid" emails
Written by Tomas Meskauskas on
What kind of email is "Your Statement Reviewed And Paid"?
Our inspection of the "Your Statement Reviewed And Paid" email revealed that it is spam. The letter claims that the recipient's accounting department has paid their statement.
The user is lured to a phishing site through which they can supposedly review the statement. The website promoted by this spam mail targets email account log-in credentials.
"Your Statement Reviewed And Paid" email scam overview
The spam email with the subject "Completed Statement 24.6.2024 11:00:33" (may vary) informs the recipient that their statement has been reviewed and paid for by the accounting department. The document can be viewed by pressing the button in the letter. The statement has to be reviewed on the day of the receipt, as access to it will expire once the deadline passes.
It must be reiterated that this email is fake and it is not associated with any legitimate entities. Clicking the button results in a redirect to a phishing website disguised as an email sign-in page. Phishing sites are designed to record provided information and send it to the scammers behind them.
Hence, visitors deceived into entering their log-in credentials into this page can have their emails stolen. These accounts, especially work emails, tend to contain incredibly sensitive information. Data of this kind can be abused in various ways, ranging from blackmail to identity theft. What is more, a compromised work email may open an avenue to a company-wide network breach.
Emails are often used to register other content; therefore, linked accounts and platforms might get hijacked as well. To expand on some of the potential misuses, cyber criminals can steal the identities of account owners (e.g., emails, social networking, social media, messengers, etc.) and ask the contacts for loans, endorse scams, and proliferate malware by sharing malicious links/files.
Stolen finance-related accounts (e.g., online banking, e-commerce, money transferring, digital wallets, etc.) can be used to make fraudulent transactions or online purchases.
To summarize, by trusting an email like "Your Statement Reviewed And Paid" – users can experience system infections, serious privacy issues, financial losses, and identity theft.
If you have already provided your log-in credentials to a phishing webpage – immediately change the passwords of all possibly exposed accounts and inform their official support.
Name | "Your Statement Reviewed And Paid" phishing email |
Threat Type | Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud |
Fake Claim | Recipient's statement has been paid and can be reviewed by pressing the button in the email. |
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
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Aside from log-in credentials, commonly targeted data includes personally identifiable details and finance-related information. However, other scams are promoted through spam mail, and it is used to spread malware.
These emails are often poorly crafted and full of grammatical/spelling mistakes, but they can also be competently made and even believably disguised as messages from legitimate companies, service providers, institutions, organizations, authorities, and other entities.
Due to how widespread spam mail is and how well-disguised it can be – we highly recommend treating incoming emails, DMs/PMs, SMSes, and other messages with care.
How do spam campaigns infect computers?
Spam campaigns proliferate malware by distribute malicious files as attachments or download links. Virulent files can be archives (ZIP, RAR, etc.), executables (.exe, .run, etc.), documents (Microsoft Office, Microsoft OneNote, PDF, etc.), JavaScript, and so on.
When such a file is opened – the infection chain is triggered. However, some formats need additional actions to initiate malware download/installation chains. For example, Microsoft Office requires users to enable macro commands (i.e., editing/content), while OneNote documents need them to click on embedded links or attachments.
How to avoid installation of malware?
We advise exercising caution with incoming emails, DMs/PMs, SMSes, and other messages. Attachments or links found in dubious mail must not be opened, as they can be harmful or infectious. However, malware is not spread exclusively through spam mail.
Therefore, we also recommend being careful while browsing, as fraudulent and dangerous online content typically appears genuine and harmless.
Additionally, all downloads must be made from official and trustworthy sources. Another recommendation is to activate and update programs using functions/tools provided by legitimate developers, as illegal activation ("cracking") tools and third-party updates can contain malware.
It is paramount for device integrity and user safety to have a reputable anti-virus installed and kept updated. Security software must be used to perform 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 "Your Statement Reviewed And Paid" spam email letter:
Subject: Completed Statement 24.6.2024 11:00:33
Hello ********
Your statement for ******** Reviewed and paid by our account dept .
View Completed Statement Doc/********
Note: The received from document will expire and deleted if not accessed before today 24.6.2024 11:00:33
Regards
Screenshot of the phishing website promoted by the "Your Statement Reviewed And Paid" spam campaign:
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Quick menu:
- What is "Your Statement Reviewed And Paid" 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?
Regardless of any relevant details that they may include, spam emails are not personal. Any such information is most likely acquired through publicly available sources for phishing scams. Cyber criminals distribute these emails by the thousand with the hopes that at least some recipients will fall for their scams.
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 potentially compromised accounts and inform their official support. And if you've provided other private data (e.g., ID card details, passport scans/photos, 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 poses no infection threat; devices are compromised 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 infected might depend on the format of the opened file. If it was an executable (.exe, .run, etc.) – an infection most likely occurred, as these formats cause them almost without fail. However, you might have avoided the compromise if it was a document (.doc, .xls, .pdf, .one, etc.). Said formats may require additional user interaction (e.g., enabling macro commands, clicking embedded files/links, etc.) to initiate system infection processes.
Will Combo Cleaner remove malware infections present in email attachments?
Yes, Combo Cleaner can detect and eliminate most of the known malware infections. It must be stressed that running a full system scan is crucial since high-end malicious programs tend to hide deep within systems.
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