Outline:
Rather threatening email purporting to be from the Lending Division at Bank of America claims that you have not made any debt payments for the last three months and should click a link to view a full report about the issue.
Brief Analysis:
The email is not from the Bank of America and the link does not open a debt report. Instead, clicking the link downloads malware to your computer.
Subject: Pay for Credit Debt when Possible
Dear Customer!Our Lending Division has looked into your payment record for last year and studied out that payments had not
been made for last 3 months. We are now working on the issue concerning ways to help you with fulfilling
liabilities and settling these arrears.At the same time, we realize you may have had solid reasons for such payment delay. That is exactly why we
are contacting you now. Nevertheless, if you are not resuming your debt settlement, we will have to engage
our enforcement units in commencing the law-suit case against you. This is the compulsory measure, so
unfortunately, we may not help you.Please make at least the very first payment at the earliest possible time. Alternatively, charges may apply,
and then the trial may be run.We have made the full report of your situation. It comprises the payment history, the overall debt amount
effective today, and further recommendations on arranging the issue. Please open and follow instructions as
soon as possible.
The file can be found here: [Link Removed]
Sincerely Yours,
Bank of America
Customer Relations Department
Detailed Analysis:
This email, which is supposedly from the Lending Division at Bank of America, claims that you have not made any debt payments for the last three months. It warns that, if you do not make a payment at “the earliest possible time”, the bank may engage its enforcement units and commence legal action against you.
The message advises you to click a link to download a full report detailing the supposed debt and then follow the instructions the report contains.
However, the email is not from Bank of America and the link does not open any sort of debt report. Instead, clicking the link automatically downloads a .zip file that contains a JavaScript (.js) file inside. If you click this .js file, a malicious JavaScript will then run. The JavaScript will connect to a remote server and download and install malware on your computer. You may not be aware that this is happening at the time.
The type of malware that is installed by the JavaScript may vary. It may be ransomware that can lock the files on your computer and then demand that you pay a fee to online criminals to retrieve a decryption key. Or, the malware may collect sensitive information such as banking login credentials and sent it to the criminals.
The criminals responsible for this malware campaign hope that at least a few people will be panicked into clicking the link in the belief that a mistake has been made and the bank wrongly thinks they owe money. And, of course, if recipients really do have loans with Bank of America, they may be even more likely to click without due caution.
There are several slightly different versions of these malware emails. If you receive one, do not click any links or open any attachments that it contains.
Last updated: December 1, 2016
First published: December 1, 2016
By Brett M. Christensen
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References
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Original Source : https://www.hoax-slayer.net/bank-of-america-debt-payment-request-malware-email/