How to recognize scams like "Salary Payment Sheet"

What kind of scam is "Salary Payment Sheet"?

In our examination of the email, we found that it is written by scammers who aim to trick recipients into believing they have received a document regarding a salary payment. The purpose of this scam is to lure recipients into revealing personal information on a deceptive website. Thus, it should be ignored.

More about the "Salary Payment Sheet" scam email

This scam email pretends to be a legitimate notification about a new salary payment sheet. It asks the recipient to log in to an employee portal to view their salary details. The email includes a link ("Login to View Salary Payment Sheet") to a fake portal designed to steal personal information when the recipient enters the requested details.

It is worth noting that during our examination, the phishing page used in this scam was down. However, scammers behind such schemes usually target login credentials. When scammers steal login credentials, they can access personal accounts like email or bank accounts. They may steal money, impersonate the victim, or scam others.

Sometimes, they sell the stolen information on the dark web to other criminals. They might also use the accounts to launch more scams or steal sensitive data. Therefore, it is important to be careful with suspicious emails requesting personal information and immediately change all passwords that may be compromised.

Threat Summary:

Name	Salary Payment Sheet Email Scam
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud
Fake Claim	The email contains a new salary payment sheet
Disguise	Notification from HR department
Symptoms	Generic greeting, urgent language, suspicious links, grammatical errors.
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.
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Similar scam emails in general

Scam emails of this type often appear to be from trusted sources, attempting to trick you into revealing personal information like login credentials. They usually include urgent messages or offers that encourage immediate action. It is important to always verify the legitimacy of such emails and avoid interacting with suspicious links to avoid monetary loss, identity theft, of other issues.

Some examples of similar emails are "Capital One - Disputed Payment Posted To Your Account", "Employee Benefit/Payroll Update", and "Your Shipment With DHL Express Is On Its Way".

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Emails intended to deliver malware have malicious attachments or links in them. These attachments can infect a device as soon as they are opened or after certain actions are taken. For example, malicious executables may infect a system immediately upon being run and infected MS Office files may require the user to enable macros before they can execute malware.

If the email contains harmful links, the goal is to deceive the recipient into downloading malicious files or software or visiting websites that trigger automatic malware downloads. Typically, the malware requires some form of user interaction to be activated.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Always inspect emails before taking action (opening their contents or responding). Do not open attachments or click links in emails from unknown senders, especially when emails are irrelevant or unexpected. Only download software from trusted sources like official websites or app stores.

Avoid clicking on pop-ups, suspicious links, or ads encountered on dubious pages, and never accept notifications from untrustworthy websites. Keep all software up to date and use a trusted security tool for protection. 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 "Salary Payment Sheet" email letter:

Subject:

New Salary Payment Sheet Available

Dear ********,

We are pleased to inform you that the new salary payment sheet for this month is now available. Please log in to your employee portal to view your detailed salary information and related records.

This update is brought to you by *********. Ensuring transparency and convenience for all our valued employees.
Login to View Salary Payment Sheet

If you have any questions or encounter any issues accessing your salary sheet, please contact the HR department at ********

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Quick menu:

• What is Salary Payment Sheet 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?

You received this email because it was sent randomly, not as a targeted message. Scammers often send these emails to a large number of people in hopes that some recipients will take action.

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

If you have provided personal information like login credentials, immediately change your passwords for any affected accounts. In other cases (if scammers obtained ID card information or credit card details), contact your bank or other relevant entity.

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

If the file is an executable, it is very likely that your system is infected. However, if it is a document (.pdf, .doc, or similar), you may have avoided infection, as opening the document alone is often not enough for malware to infect your system.

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

No, simply opening an email is harmless. It is clicking on links or opening attachments within the email that can lead to system infections.

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

Yes, Combo Cleaner can detect and remove nearly all known malware infections. However, advanced malware often hides deep within the system, so it us important to run a full system scan for thorough protection.

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