How to identify scams like "Intuit QuickBooks - Unable To Process Payment"
Written by Tomas Meskauskas on (updated)
What is "Intuit QuickBooks - Unable To Process Payment"?
Our analysis of the email reveals that it is a fraudulent notification about an unprocessed payment. The purpose of this scam is to deceive recipients into visiting the provided webpage and revealing personal information. It is strongly advisable to disregard this email and avoid engaging with its contents.
More about the "Intuit QuickBooks - Unable To Process Payment" scam email
The scam email impersonates Intuit (a legitimate business software company) and claims that the recipient's most recent payment could not be processed due to missing billing from the vendor. The email urges the recipient to log in and correct the issue using the "Sign In" link.
During our inspection, the website included in this scam email was down. However, it is supposed to be a phishing page mimicking QuickBooks or another sign-in page. Usually, scammers behind such scams seek to steal login credentials from users. When scammers steal login credentials, they typically use them to gain unauthorized access to accounts and exploit them in various ways.
Depending on the accessed accounts, scammers steal money, make unauthorized purchases, or commit identity theft. They may also spread malware by sending malicious links or files to contacts, sell stolen credentials (or other information) on the dark web, or exploit sensitive information for blackmail or further fraud.
Overall, becoming a victim of such scams can have serious consequences. Therefore, it is important to be careful with unexpected, irrelevant emails and avoid clicking links or opening files in such emails.
| Name | Intuit QuickBooks - Unable To Process Payment Email Scam |
| Threat Type | Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud |
| Fake Claim | Most recent payment could not be processed |
| Related Domain | arianos[.]online |
| Detection Names (arianos[.]online) | alphaMountain.ai (Phishing), Combo Cleaner (Malware), CyRadar (Malicious), Kaspersky (Phishing), Sophos (Phishing), Full List Of Detections (VirusTotal) |
| Disguise | Letter from Intuit |
| 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. |
| 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
Scammers behind such emails pretend to be legitimate companies or organizations and use urgent messages, tempting offers, or similar methods to trick recipients into revealing personal information. They typically target credit card details, login credentials, and other sensitive data.
Examples of such scam emails are "Your Office Account Storage Is Nearly Full", "Space of Your Office Account Is Almost Full", and "Re-Activate Your Mailbox Address". These emails may also contain links or attachments designed to distribute malware.
How do spam campaigns infect computers?
Computers can be infected through email when users open malicious links or attachments. Files attached to deceptive emails can inject malware after they are opened or additional steps are taken. For instance, opening malicious executables can cause immediate harm, while opening infected MS Office documents cannot cause infections until macros commands are enabled.
Links in emails used to deliver malware may direct users to deceptive web pages that prompt them to download harmful software or files. These pages can also automatically download malware onto the system. Other file types commonly used to spread malware include PDFs, ISO files, JavaScript files, and archives.
How to avoid installation of malware?
Regularly install updates for your operating system, software, and apps to fix security vulnerabilities. Only download files from trusted sources (official pages or app stores). Install reliable antivirus software and keep it up to date. Do not open email attachments or links from unknown senders.
Avoid interacting with links, ads, pop-ups, and similar content on questionable websites, and do not permit web pages of this kind to send you notifications. 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 "Intuit QuickBooks - Unable To Process Payment" email letter:
Subject:
Quickbooks Online down? Current problems and outages | Downdetector
-Thank you for choosing Intuit Payment solutions.
We were unable to process your most recent payment due to Vendor's missing billing.
Login to correct this error.
Sign In
Thank You,
Intuit Team
Technical Support
Disclaimer: This email and its content are confidential and intended solely for the use of the addressee. Please notify the sender if you have received this email in error or simply delete it.
Secured by Proofpoint Encryption, Copyright © 2024-2025 Proofpoint, Inc. All rights reserved.
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 Intuit QuickBooks - Unable To Process Payment 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 often buy or steal email lists from compromised sources to send mass spam or phishing emails. Their emails are not personal/targeted. Typically, many poeple receive the same email.
I have provided my personal information when tricked by this email, what should I do?
If you have shared any account login details, change all your passwords right away. If you have given out other personal information, like credit card numbers or ID card details, reach out to the relevant authorities.
I have downloaded and opened a malicious file attached to this email, is my computer infected?
If the file was an executable, there is a high chance your system was infected. If it was a document (.pdf, .doc, or similar), you might have avoided the infection, as simply opening the document does nit always allow malware to spread.
I have read the email but did not open the attachment, is my computer infected?
No, opening an email is safe. It is clicking links or opening attachments that can cause system infections.
Will Combo Cleaner remove malware infections that were present in email attachment?
Yes, Combo Cleaner can detect and remove most known malware. However, advanced malware can hide deep within the system, so it is essential to run a full system scan to ensure complete removal.
Outstanding!
▼ Show Discussion