Cybercriminals spamvertise bogus ‘Microsoft License Orders’ serve client-side exploits and malware

Cybercriminals spamvertise bogus ‘Microsoft License Orders’ serve client-side exploits and malware

Cybercriminals are currently mass mailing millions of emails impersonating Microsoft Corporation in an attempt to trick users into clicking on a link in a bogus ‘License Order” confirmation email. Upon clicking on the link, users are exposed to the client-side exploits served by the latest version of the Black Hole Exploit Kit.

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‘Copies of Missing EPLI Policies’ themed emails lead to Black Hole Exploit Kit

‘Copies of Missing EPLI Policies’ themed emails lead to Black Hole Exploit Kit

Attempting to achieve a higher click-through rate for their exploits and malware serving malicious campaign, cybercriminals are currently spamvertising millions of emails attempting to trick users into thinking they’ve become part of a private conversation about missing EPLI policies.

In reality, clicking on any of the links in the oddly formulated email will expose them to the client-side exploits served by the latest version of the Black Hole Exploit Kit.

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Bogus IRS ‘Your tax return appeal is declined’ themed emails lead to malware

Bogus IRS ‘Your tax return appeal is declined’ themed emails lead to malware

In March 2012, we intercepted an IRS themed malicious campaign that was serving client-side exploits to prospective victims in an attempt to drop malware on the affected hosts.

This week, we intercepted three consecutive campaigns using the exact same email template used in the March campaign. What has changed? Are the cybercriminals behind these campaigns relying on any new tactics, or are they basically sticking to well proven techniques to infect tens of thousands of socially engineered users?

Let’s find out.

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Cybercriminals spamvertise bogus eFax Corporate delivery messages, serve multiple malware variants

Cybercriminals spamvertise bogus eFax Corporate delivery messages, serve multiple malware variants

Cybercriminals are currently mass mailing millions of emails trying to trick recipients into executing malicious attachments pitched as recently arrived fax messages. Upon running the malicious executables, users are exposed to a variety of dropped malware variants in a clear attempt by the cybercriminals to add additional layers of monetization to the campaign.

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‘PayPal Account Modified’ themed emails lead to Black Hole Exploit Kit

‘PayPal Account Modified’ themed emails lead to Black Hole Exploit Kit

A cybercriminal/group of cybercriminals that’s been responsible for a series of malware attacks that I’ve been recently profiling, continues to systematically rotate the impersonated brands and the actual malicious payload dropped by the market leading Black Hole Exploit Kit. The prospective target of their latest campaign? PayPal users.

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Cybercriminals abuse major U.S SMS gateways, release DIY Mail-to-SMS flooders

Cybercriminals abuse major U.S SMS gateways, release DIY Mail-to-SMS flooders

Largely driven by a widespread adoption of growth and efficiency oriented strategies applied by cybercriminals within the entire spectrum of the cybercrime ecosystem, we’ve witnessed the emergence and development of the mobile device market segment over the past few years. Motivated by the fact that more people own a mobile device than a PC, cybercriminals quickly adapted and started innovating in an attempt to capitalize on this ever-growing market segment within their portfolio of fraudulent operations.

In this post I’ll profile a DIY Mail-to-SMS flooder that’s abusing a popular feature offered by international and U.S based mobile carriers – the ability to SMS any number through an email message. The DIY SMS flooder exclusively targets U.S users.

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‘American Express Alert: Your Transaction is Aborted’ themed emails serve client-side exploits and malware

‘American Express Alert: Your Transaction is Aborted’ themed emails serve client-side exploits and malware

American Express cardholders, beware!

Over the past week, cybercriminals mass mailed millions of emails impersonating American Express, in an attempt to trick its customers into clicking on the malicious links found in the emails. Upon clicking on any of the links, users are redirected to a malicious URL serving cllient-side exploits courtesy of the Black Hole Exploit Kit.

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‘Payroll Account Holded by Intuit’ themed emails lead to Black Hole Exploit Kit

‘Payroll Account Holded by Intuit’ themed emails lead to Black Hole Exploit Kit

Intuit users, beware!

Cybercriminals are currently mass mailing millions of emails impersonating Intuit’s Direct Deposit Service, in an attempt to trick its users into clicking on the malicious links found in the legitimate-looking emails. Upon clicking on any of them, users are exposed to the client-side exploits served by the latest version of the Black Hole Exploit Kit.

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‘Your Discover Card Services Blockaded’ themed emails serve client-side exploits and malware

‘Your Discover Card Services Blockaded’ themed emails serve client-side exploits and malware

Cybercriminals are currently spamvertising millions of emails impersonating Discover, in an attempt to trick cardholders into clicking on the client-side exploits serving URLs found in the malicious emails. Upon clicking on the links, users are exposed to the client-side exploits served by the latest version of the Black Hole Exploit Kit.

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‘Fwd: Scan from a Xerox W. Pro’ themed emails lead to Black Hole Exploit Kit

‘Fwd: Scan from a Xerox W. Pro’ themed emails lead to Black Hole Exploit Kit

On a periodic basis, malicious cybercriminals spamvertise millions of emails attempting to trick end users into thinking that they’ve received a scanned document. Upon clicking on the links found in these emails, or viewing the malicious .html attachment, users are automatically exposed to the client-side exploits served by the latest version of the Black Hole Exploit Kit.

In this post, I will profile two currently circulating malicious campaigns. The first is mimicking a Xerox Pro printer, and the second is claiming to be a legitimate Wire Transfer. Both of these campaigns point to the same client-side exploits serving URL, indicating that they’ve been launched by the same cybercriminal/gang of cybercriminals.

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USPS ‘Postal Notification’ themed emails lead to malware

USPS ‘Postal Notification’ themed emails lead to malware

Cybercriminals are currently mass mailing millions of emails impersonating The United States Postal Service (USPS), in an attempt to trick its customers into downloading and executing the malicious .zip archive linked in the bogus emails.

Upon execution, the malware opens a backdoor on the affected host, allowing the cybercriminals behind the campaign to gain complete control over the host.

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