How to spot fraudulent emails like "Staff Whose Employment Have Been Terminated"

What is "Staff Whose Employment Have Been Terminated"?

We have inspected this email and discovered that it is a scam. It is designed to appear as an important letter from an HR manager regarding employment termination. Our analysis has shown that the purpose of this scam email is to extract personal information from recipients. Such emails are known as phishing emails, and they should be ignored.

More about the "Staff Whose Employment Have Been Terminated" scam email

This fraudulent email informs the recipient that the attached document contains a list of staff whose employment has been terminated. It urges the recipient to download and review the attachment, which supposedly contains a "Staff Employment Termination list" and details about new administrative positions and transfers.

The email also instructs the recipient to ensure that the terminated employees are excluded from future email communications and to check if their name is on the list. The file attached to the email is named "StaffTerminationListOctober2024pdf.html" (its name may vary). Opening it leads to a fake DocuSign login form requesting an email address and password to "view PDF document".

The information entered on this deceptive website is sent to scammers. With access to an email account, scammers can dig deeper into personal or sensitive information, including financial data, stored documents, and contact lists. They can send fraudulent emails to contacts and conduct further phishing attacks.

Additionally, if the victim uses the same login credentials across multiple accounts, the scammers may access to banking, social media, or other accounts. Ultimately, falling for this scam can lead to financial loss, reputational damage, further attacks on the victim and their contacts, and other issues.

Threat Summary:

Name	Staff Whose Employment Have Been Terminated Email Scam
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud
Fake Claim	The attached file contains a staff employment termination list
Attachment	StaffTerminationListOctober2024pdf.html
Detection Names (Attachment)	Symantec (Phish.ScrTgHtml!gen1), Full List Of Detections (VirusTotal)
Disguise	Letter from HR manager
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.

Similar scam emails in general

These deceptive emails often impersonate companies, organizations, or other entities to appear legitimate. They are crafted to convince recipients to provide sensitive information directly via email or phishing pages/forms. They can also include real logos, names, addresses, and other details to trick recipients.

In order to protect personal information and the risks associated with disclosing it to scammers, it is important to avoid such emails (and recognize fraudulent ones) and links or attachments within them. Examples of phishing emails are "You Have Pending UNSYNC Messages", "Webmail - Messages Are Yet To Reach Your Mailbox", and "Cloudflare - Important Account Update".

It should be noted that emails can contain links and files intended to deliver malware.

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Threat actors distribute malware through emails by attaching infected files or malicious links. When users open these files (they can be documents, script files, executables, archives, and other files), they risk infecting computers. Malware can be activated upon opening malicious files or after additional actions, like enabling macros in infected Office documents.

Malicious links in fraudulent emails can direct users to websites that lure them into downloading malware manually or may start such downloads automatically.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Avoid downloading pirated software, cracking tools, and key generators. Also, do not use unofficial sources like peer-to-peer networks, unreliable websites, or third-party downloaders for downloads. Always download software and files from official websites or trusted app stores. Keep your security software, apps, and operating system up to date.

Do not trust pop-ups, advertisements, and similar content on suspicious sites. Be cautious with emails from unknown senders, especially if they seem unexpected or unrelated, and do not open any links or attachments they contain. 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 "Staff Whose Employment Have Been Terminated" email letter:

Subject: Staff Employment Termination lists and new administrative position 2024

Dear User,

Good Day,
Find below names of staff whose employment have been terminated with immediate effect.
Please find attached/download and review list of Staff Employment Termination lists and new administrative position and  transfers
/*********/company/employees.PDF

Kindly note that henceforth they should not be copied in all email correspondences. Find where your name falls and comply accordingly.
Thanks and regards,
***** Human Resources
HR Manager

Phishing form presented in the attached file ("StaffTerminationListOctober2024pdf.html"):

Another variant of a phishing HTML file attached to "Staff Whose Employment Have Been Terminated" spam email:

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Quick menu:

• What is Staff Whose Employment Have Been Terminated 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?

Scammers may have obtained your email address (and some other details like your name) from a deceptive page, data breach, or other channel. However, it is very unlikely that you are the only one who received this email. Usually, scammers send the same message to thousands of people, hoping someone will take the bait.

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

Change the passwords for compromised accounts as soon as possible. Especially if the same login credentials can be used to access multiple accounts.

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

The file attached to this email does not contain malware. However, opening malicious attachments can cause computer infections. Whether a computer is infected after opening a malicious attachment depends on the file type.

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

Simply opening an email is harmless and does not cause any issues. The risk comes from clicking links or opening attachments within fraudulent emails, which can lead to infections.

Will Combo Cleaner remove malware infections that were present in email attachment?

Combo Cleaner is effective at finding and removing most known malware. However, since advanced malware can bury itself deep in your system, a full scan is necessary to ensure everything harmful is detected and removed.

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