City of London Police Email Scam Warning

City of London Police are sending emails containing important information about a murder suspect. You must be vigilant, and if you see this individual, you should not approach him! The attachment sent via email contains his image, so you will know to avoid him and alert the police if you see him. Unfortunately, opening the attachment will make you a victim. You will not be murdered, but you may end up having your bank account emptied. Yes, this is a City of London Police email scam, and it attempts to convince the good, law abiding public to infect their devices with malware.

City of London Police Email Scam Warning!

One of the latest email scams to be wary of, especially if you live in the UK, involves spam emails with the subject “London City Police.” Contained in the email is a bulletin detailing a murder suspect on the loose, together with a malware-infected attachment.

Fortunately for the wary, there is a clue in the subject that the email is not genuine. There is of course no “London City Police.” The police force in question is called “The City of London Police.” That said, the shock of receiving an email from law enforcement about a murderer on the loose may be enough to convince many to open the email and the attachment.

As one would expect, the email contains a stern warning, with the content phrased in such a way that it could in fact have been sent by the police force. A murderer on the loose in London is a serious matter, and this cunning email spam campaign has been devised to play on the fear that such a matter is likely to create.

How would the Police force have got your email address, and those of everyone else living in your area? That is something that many victims of this email scam may ponder after opening the attachment. Of course, by then it will be too late. Opening the attachment will result in malware being installed on the victim’s computer.

Fortunately, email scams such as this are easy to avoid, in fact, they would not even get to the point of being delivered to an inbox, if precautions have been taken, as explained by Steven Kenny, Customer Support Manager at TitanHQ.

Kenny pointed out that by using SpamTitan, computer users will be protected. He said, “This malware was blocked by SpamTitan before it had a chance to make it to users’ inboxes.” He went on to say, “The malware contained in the attachment was flagged as a virus. The attachment is a zip file, once executed; the malware goes to work.”

SpamTitan Blocked the City of London Police Email Scam

The image below is a screenshot of the City of London Police email scam, which was successfully blocked by SpamTitan.

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Current High Risk of Malware Infection

Malware poses a major risk to individuals, but businesses are especially at risk of infection. Employees may be wary of opening emails on their own devices, but are they as security conscious at work?

It is perhaps easier to believe that a work email address would be in the police database, rather than a personal email account. This may lead employees to believe that the email is genuine. Unfortunately, all it takes is for one employee to open an infected attachment, and their computer, and the network it connects to could be infected.

Since email is essential in business, protections must be put in place to ensure networks are not compromised as a result of the actions of employees. If malware is installed, the losses suffered can be considerable. It therefore can pay dividends to implement protection such SpamTitan spam filtering. This will prevent malware-infected emails from being delivered to employees’ inboxes.

Subscribers Targeted by Netflix Phishing Scam

A new Netflix phishing scam has been uncovered which works by telling users their Netflix accounts have been closed, requiring action to regain access to the service. Doing so will give your confidential login details to the scam operators.

Netflix has 62.27 million users, making it a highly attractive target for email scammers and spammers, and consequently Netflix phishing scams are common.

Latest Netflix Phishing Scam Convinces users to Reveal their Account Details

Recipients of the fake Netflix emails are required to click a link in order to reactivate their accounts. Unknown to the victims of this Netflix phishing scam, clicking on the link will direct them to a fake Netflix page, and by reactivating their accounts they will be giving the scammers their account names, passwords, and potentially other sensitive information.

Unfortunately for Netflix users, revealing passwords for one account may also mean other online accounts are compromised. Many users share their passwords across different websites, often using the same or similar passwords for Netflix, Facebook, and a host of other sites, including online banking portals.

TitanHQ recommends Netflix users ignore the email and delete it, and certainly do not to click on the link in the email. Phishing scams such as this usually direct users to a website that has been infected with malware, and clicking the link will result in that malware being downloaded, even if no information is entered on the page.

The best course of action is to login to your Netflix account as you would normally do, by typing in the URL or using your bookmark, and check your account status directly with Netflix. In all likelihood, it will still be active.

Further Information on the New Netflix Phishing Scam

Below is a screenshot of the latest Netflix phishing scam. The email appears genuine enough, although close inspection will reveal a few grammatical errors, such as missing apostrophes and misplaced exclamation marks. However, the email could be enough to fool the unwary, and especially individuals who tend to skim read emails and click first and think later.

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This phishing campaign is similar to others that have been recently sent to users of other online services. Phishing emails are devised to give the recipient a legitimate reason for handing over sensitive information, usually via webpage.

These include, but are not limited to:

  • Upgrading security settings
  • Performing essential system maintenance
  • Verifying account details to prevent fraud
  • Claiming a refund for a bill that has been paid
  • Giving money back for an incorrect charge
  • Offering you a free gift or service

Email scams often deliver malicious programs – malware – that has been created to steal confidential data such as account login names and passwords. Phishing campaigns are launched on social media, although email is the most common way that these scams are delivered.

Generally speaking, phishing campaigns can be categorized in three types:

Off-the-Shelf Jacking Toolkits

Criminals can purchase malware online which can be used to scam users into revealing passwords, which can subsequently be used to empty bank accounts, rack up debts, or hold people to ransom (the latter is becoming increasingly common and is referred to as ransomware). Once access is gained to an account or computer, Ransomware is used to encrypt data. The users are then required to pay a ransom to the perpetrator of the scheme in order to get their data unlocked.

These campaigns are usually opportunistic in nature, and involve millions of spam emails being sent. It is a numbers game, and some users will click on the phishing links and compromise their computers and networks.

Zero-day Vulnerability Exploits

The net is also cast similarly widely with these email phishing campaigns; however, the malware delivered is more complex, and the hackers behind these schemes are considerably more skilled. Zero-day vulnerabilities are new security flaws that have been discovered in software that have yet to be discovered by the software vendor. Consequently, patches do not exist to deal with the threat. Malware is created to exploit these vulnerabilities, which is usually delivered via an infected email attachment, although it can be downloaded when users visit a phishing website.

Spear Phishing Campaigns

These are targeted attacks that are conducted on individuals, or in some cases, organizations. The perpetrators of these schemes are skilled, and invest considerable time and effort into creating convincing campaigns. Oftentimes extensive information is gathered on the targets prior to the phishing emails being sent.

These schemes similarly use zero day vulnerabilities, and these advanced persistent threats (APT) have been used in a number of high profile attacks, such as the recent Carbanak malware attacks which have made the headlines recently.

How to Avoid Becoming a Phishing Victim

The best defense against attack is to be vigilant. Security awareness training for employees is essential. Staff members must be alerted to the risk, the consequences of clicking on a phishing link, and told how to identify scams. They should be instructed to check links before clicking (by hovering the mouse arrow over the link to check the real address).

It is also essential to keep all software patched and up to date. This applies to operating systems, applications, web browsers and other software. Software should be configured to update automatically wherever possible. Organizations should also develop concise patch management policies. Continuous security audits should be conducted and multi-layered network security controls developed.

There are a number of ways that spam and phishing emails can be prevented from being delivered to users, such as using a spam filter. Web filtering is particularly useful in prevent users from visiting known malware and phishing sites.