How to identify scams like "We Cannot Process Payment"
Written by Tomas Meskauskas on
What kind of scam is "We Cannot Process Payment"?
Our team has inspected the email and uncovered that it is a scam known as phishing. Scammers behind this email aim to trick recipients into believing they have received an invoice. Their ultimate goal is to extract personal information from unsuspecting individuals. Recipients should ignore such emails to avoid potential risks.
More about the "We Cannot Process Payment" scam email
The phishing email has the subject line "Re: Revise Invoice from USD to Euro". It claims to be from Elly Fatma, an Executive Director and requests that the recipient provide Euro Bank details for payment due to an inability to process USD payments.
The email includes an attachment that supposedly contains the invoice. It urges the recipient to revise the invoice and respond with the updated details to proceed with the payment. The email also includes a fake contact email and website.
The file attached to this email, "Invoice-5123446 pdf.shtml" (its name may vary), requests users to confirm their email accounts. It instructs users to provide an email address and password to continue. Any information entered on the fake form is sent to scammers, who can misuse it for malicious purposes.
Scammers can misuse stolen email account login credentials to impersonate the account owner and deceive contacts into transferring money or sharing sensitive information. They can also use the accessed account to send phishing emails to others, spread malware, or carry out further scams.
Moreover, the compromised account can be used to access and exploit other linked accounts or personal data. Thus, it is important to be careful with suspicious emails and never enter personal information on questionable websites.
| Name | We Cannot Process Payment Email Scam |
| Threat Type | Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud |
| Fake Claim | The email contains an invoice |
| Disguise | Letter from Elly Fatma, an Executive Director |
| Detection Names (Attached HTML document) | AhnLab-V3 (Phishing/HTML.FakeLogin.SC203299), Full List Of Detections (VirusTotal) |
| 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. |
Similar scam emails in general
Phishing emails are designed to trick recipients into revealing sensitive information (and sometimes downloading malicious software). They often impersonate legitimate entities (e.g., companies or organizations) and use urgent language to trick recipients into taking immediate action.
The goal is typically to steal credit card details, login credentials, social security numbers, or other information. Some examples of phishing emails are "IMAP/POP3 TIME-OUT", "Reserve Server", and "SharePoint - ACH-Wire Authorization".
How do spam campaigns infect computers?
Emails intended to spread malware include malicious attachments (files) or links. These malicious files can be MS Office documents, PDFs, archives, executables, ISO files, JavaScript files, or others. The malware is deployed on the system once these files are opened (or additional actions are taken, such as enabling macros in infected Office documents).
Links in deceptive emails can direct users to websites intended to trick them into downloading and opening malicious files or installing harmful programs. Additionally, these links might lead to pages that automatically download malware.
How to avoid installation of malware?
Do not open links or files received via email if emails are unexpected, irrelevant, and (or) from unknown addresses. Download software from official websites (or app stores). Avoid installing pirated software or using cracking tools (or unofficial key generators). Do not click pop-ups, ads, and buttons on dubious sites.
Regularly update the operating system and installed software, and scan your computer for threats using a reliable security tool. If you have already opened malicious attachments, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate infiltrated malware.
Text presented in the "We Cannot Process Payment" email letter:
Subject: Re: Revise Invoice from USD to Euro
Good Day ,
Attached is your invoice forwarded to us by our Agents for payment
but we cannot process payment in USD at the moment.
Kindly advise if we can make payment in euro and provide us with your Euro Bank Details for payment.
The invoice have been secured for your view alone ,so check and get back to us with a revised one .
We await your reply to proceed with payment,
Best Regards,
Eng. Elly Fatma
EXECUTIVE DIRECTORARCH BUILDING TECHNOLOGY
Mob: +966566012051
Email: fatmacassie@danthieusay.cfdinfo@danthieusay.cfd
www.danthieusay[.]cfd
Phishing page utilized in this scam campaign:
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Quick menu:
- What is We Cannot Process Payment phishing scam?
- 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?
Scammers send the same email to thousands of recipients. These spam messages are generic and lack personalization, such as including the recipient's full name or other details.
I have provided my personal information when tricked by this email, what should I do?
If you have shared any account credentials, update all your passwords right away (especially if the same or similar password can be used to access multiple accounts).
I have downloaded and opened a malicious file attached to this email, is my computer infected?
If the malicious file was an executable, opening it may have resulted in malware infiltration. However, if the file was a document (such as a .pdf or .doc), you may have avoided the attack, as opening these files requires additional interaction for malware to be deployed.
I have read the email but did not open the attachment, is my computer infected?
It is safe to open emails as long as you do not click on any links or open attached files.
Will Combo Cleaner remove malware infections that were present in email attachment?
Combo Cleaner is effective at detecting and removing most malware. However, since some advanced threats can be deeply embedded in the system, it is important to run a complete system scan to ensure everything is found and removed.
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