How to avoid scams like "Scan Contract" fake notification

What kind of scam is "Scan Contract"?

Our inspection of the email has uncovered that it is a phishing email. Scammers designed it to appear like a notification regarding a confirmation of bank information. They aim to trick recipients into opening the attached file and disclosing personal information. This email should be ignored to avoid potential consequences.

More about the "Scan Contract" scam email

This phishing email appears to impersonate a legitimate business. It informs the recipient about a "Signed Contract#00786" and asks them to review an attached scan of the contract. It also requests the recipient's bank information for a 30% deposit. The email mentions that the company will be closed on the specified dates and provides contact information and a website link.

Despite its appearance, this email is a phishing attempt to steal personal information. The attachment ("scan-contract#00786.shtml") contains a fake form requesting that recipients confirm their identity by entering login details (email address and password). The provided information is sent to scammers, who can misuse it in various ways.

With extracted login details, cybercriminals might access personal accounts like email, social media, and financial platforms to steal sensitive information, carry out fraudulent transactions, or impersonate the victim. They may also use the credentials to spread malware or phishing links to contacts. Additionally, stolen credentials can be sold on the dark web.

Therefore, it is important to carefully review unexpected or irrelevant emails before opening attachments or links, providing personal information, or taking other actions. Falling for phishing scams can result in monetary loss, identity theft, and other issues.

Threat Summary:

Name	Scan Contract Email Scam
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud
Fake Claim	The email contains a document with bank deposit information
Attachment	scan-contract#00786.shtml
Detection Names (Attachment)	AhnLab-V3 (Phishing/HTML.FakeLogin.SC209070), ESET-NOD32 (HTML/Phishing.Gen), Fortinet (HTML/Phish.43BF!tr), Microsoft (Trojan:HTML/Msphish.GZ!MTB), Symantec (Phish.ScrHtml!gen7), Full List Of Detections (VirusTotal)
Disguise	Letter from a legitimate company
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. ▼ 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

Scammers use phishing emails to steal personal information by pretending to be legitimate companies, organizations, or other entities. They often include suspicious links or attachments in their emails. Most commonly targeted information is credit card details, login credentials, and (or) ID card information.

Examples of phishing emails are "Webmail - Fraudulent Activity Alert Notice", "Email Delivery Error", and "You Have A New Purchase Order". Fraudulent emails can also be used to trick users into infecting their systems with malware.

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Malware can infect systems through emails when users open harmful attachments or click links. These attachments might include infected files like Word documents, PDFs, ZIP files, executable programs, or scripts, which activate the malware when opened or when specific features, like macros, are enabled.

Clicking links in deceptive emails can redirect users to fake websites designed to trick them into downloading malicious software. In some instances, these websites may automatically download malware onto the device without further action from users.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Always review emails carefully, especially those from unknown senders or those that are unexpected or irrelevant, before taking any action (opening attachments or links). Do not trust pop-ups, ads, links, buttons, etc., on questionable websites. Download software only from reliable sources like official websites or trusted app stores.

Regularly update the operating system and applications and use reliable antivirus or anti-malware 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 "Scan Contract" email letter:

Subject: Signed Contract#00786

Hello,

Please find attached scan contract and confirm your bank information for 30% deposit.

Note: We will be closed from 20th to 15th Of January 2025.

Regards

Craig

Carbery Plastics Limited

Clonakilty Enterprise Park

Clonakilty Co.Cork

023-8833531

www.carberyplastics.com

The file ("scan-contract#00786.shtml") attached to the email containing a phishing form:

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Quick menu:

• What is Scan Contract 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 send mass emails to thousands of recipients, relying on the likelihood that at least one person will take the bait. These spam emails are usually generic and lack personalization.

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

If you have shared your email or other account login details, immediately change your passwords to secure your accounts. Contact the service providers if your accounts cannot be accessed.

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

The probability of malware infiltration through email attachments depends on the file type and user interaction. For example, running a harmful .exe file can immediately launch the infection, while malicious MS Office documents become dangerous only if the user enables macros.

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

Merely opening an email is safe; infections can occur only when harmful attachments or links within the email are accessed.

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

Combo Cleaner is highly effective at detecting and removing most known malware. However, since advanced malware can embed itself deep within the system, running a comprehensive full system scan is often necessary to ensure complete elimination.

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