How to recognize scams like "Capital One - Your Password Has Been Changed" fake email

What is "Capital One - Your Password Has Been Changed" scam?

Our team inspected this letter and concluded that it is a phishing email. Its purpose is to trick recipients into believing they received a notification regarding a password change and taking action (disclosing personal information). Users should recognize such emails and ignore them.

More about the "Capital One - Your Password Has Been Changed" scam email

This phishing email informs the recipient that their Capital One account password was successfully changed on 18/11/2024 (the date might vary). It urges them to click a link to recover access if they did not request the change. The email claims the old password and account ownership will be restored after verification and encourages downloading the Capital One mobile app.

It is important to note that Capital One is a legitimate bank holding company. Scammers use its name to make their email appear more legitimate. Clicking the provided link ("click here to update and recover your account access") leads to a fake Capital One login page requesting to provide a username and password to sign in.

Once scammers have these credentials, they can gain unauthorized access to the victim's Capital One account, leading to potential theft of personal information, financial data, or even unauthorized transactions. Moreover, fraudsters may try to use the stolen information to access other accounts or sell it on the dark web.

To protect themselves, users should be cautious of unsolicited emails and always verify the legitimacy of any request for personal or account information.

Threat Summary:

Name	Capital One - Your Password Has Been Changed Email Scam
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud
Fake Claim	Your Capital One account password has been changed
Related Domains	waywin.com[.]br, trimmer[.]to
Detection Names (waywin.com[.]br)	Antiy-AVL (Malicious), Combo Cleaner (Phishing), Fortinet (Phishing), Lionic (Phishing), Sophos (Phishing), Full List Of Detections (VirusTotal)
Detection Names (trimmer[.]to)	Certego (Phishing), CRDF (Malicious), G-Data (Malware), Kaspersky (Phishing), VIPRE (Phishing), Full List Of Detections (VirusTotal)
Disguise	Letter from Capital One
Symptoms	Generic greeting, urgent language, suspicious links, grammatical errors, unexpected requests.
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

Phishing emails are used to deceive potential victims into revealing personal information. Falling for such schemes may result in identity theft, financial loss, and other issues. It is important to be cautious of unsolicited messages, avoid clicking on suspicious links, and verify requests through official channels to avoid falling for these scams.

Examples of phishing emails are "DHL - INCOMING PACKAGE NOTIFICATION", "Email Account Is Outdated", and "Domain Service Sent A De-activation Notice". Fraudulent emails can also be used to trick recipients into launching malware on their computers.

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Cybercriminals commonly use fraudulent emails to deliver malware by tricking users into opening infected attachments or clicking malicious links. Infections occur when users open malicious executables, enable macros in infected documents, run malicious scripts, or take other actions that activate the malware.

Emails may also contain links to fraudulent websites that either prompt users to download malicious files or automatically trigger downloads without their knowledge. In most cases, malware relies on user interaction to successfully infect a system.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Be cautious of unexpected emails from unfamiliar senders, especially those with links or attachments. Keep your security software, apps, and operating system up to date. Only download files from trusted websites or official app stores (avoid using P2P networks, torrent sites, third-party downloaders, and similar sources).

Do not click on pop-ups, links, or ads encountered on suspicious sites, and do not allow such pages to send you notifications. Make sure your computer is secured with reliable antivirus software.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 "Capital One - Your Password Has Been Changed" email letter:

Your password has been changed

About your Capital One account ending in xxxx
Your Capital One account personal password has been sucessfully changed on 18/11/2024 15:27:23 .
If you did not request this changes, Please click here to update and recover your account access.
 
Your old Capital One password and your online account ownership will be fully restored after verification.
Download the Capital One Mobile app.
 
About This Message
Please visit our Set Alerts page to modify your alerts subscription.
The site may be unavailable during normal maintenance or due to unforeseen circumstances.
 
Important information from Capital One
Contact us  |  Privacy  |  Help prevent fraud

Phishing website used in this scam:

Instant automatic malware removal: Manual threat removal might be a lengthy and complicated process that requires advanced IT skills. Combo Cleaner is a professional automatic malware removal tool that is recommended to get rid of malware. Download it by clicking the button below:
▼ DOWNLOAD Combo Cleaner By downloading any software listed on this website you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. 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.

Quick menu:

• What is Capital One - Your Password Has Been Changed 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?

These emails are typically sent randomly (they are not personal), using email lists gathered from data breaches or other methods.

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

If you have shared account credentials with scammers, change all your passwords immediately to protect your accounts.

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

If the file was an executable (.exe or similar), it could have triggered an infection. Document files (.pdf, .doc, etc.) typically require additional actions, such as enabling macros, to infect your computer. In short, the type of malicious file you open determines whether your computer is at risk.

I have read the email but did not open the attachment, is my computer infected?

Opening an email is generally safe, but clicking links or opening attachments in fraudulent emails can lead to malicious websites and trigger malware downloads or executions.

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

Yes, Combo Cleaner can detect and remove most known malware infections. However, advanced malware may be deeply embedded in the system, so performing a full system scan may be necessary for thorough elimination.

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