{"id":2552,"date":"2019-04-06T19:34:06","date_gmt":"2019-04-06T19:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.syyhoaxanalyzer.com\/?p=2552"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T17:00:00","slug":"Past-Due-Invoice-\"Ultimate-Alert\";-Email-Contains-Macro-Malware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.syyhoaxanalyzer.com\/?p=2552","title":{"rendered":"Past Due Invoice &#8220;Ultimate Alert&#8221;; Email Contains Macro Malware"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Outline:<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\nRather threatening email claims to be the third and last billing notification for a service and warns that the service will be discontinued in the next \u00a048 hours if you do not take this last chance to settle a past due \u00a0invoice by opening an attached Microsoft Word document.<br \/>\n<script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- HS Net Top Content Responsive --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-0355887770822260\" data-ad-slot=\"4870821038\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Brief Analysis:<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\nThe email is not a genuine billing notification and the attached Word document is not a real invoice. If you attempt to open \u00a0the Word document, you will be prompted to enable macros. But, if you do enable macros, a malicious macro will then install malware on your computer.<\/p>\n<div class=\"example\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><b>Example:<\/b><\/span><br \/>\n<strong>Subject: Hoax-Slayer &#8211; Past Due Invoice : Ultimate alert (To: Brett Christensen)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Dear Brett Christensen,(Hoax-Slayer)<\/p>\n<p>Here is your third and last billing notification that your invoice no. 01080704 which was issued on 24th of September, 2016 is now past due.Note: Your Services described in the invoice WILL BE discontinued in the next 48 hours!Contract Name: Hoax-Slayer<br \/>\nBalance Due: A$ 2485.33<br \/>\nPay before: 11-10-16You have a last chance to settle the invoice.<\/p>\n<p>Respectfully yours,<br \/>\nDavid [Removed]<br \/>\n[Name Removed] Pharmacy Accounts Team.<br \/>\nABN: [removed]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- HSNet Article Center --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-0355887770822260\" data-ad-slot=\"5727909035\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Detailed Analysis:<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\nAccording to this &#8220;ultimate alert&#8221;  \u00a0email, I have \u00a0one last chance to settle an overdue invoice. It warns that, if I don&#8217;t pay within 48 hours, the &#8220;services described in the invoice&#8221; will be discontinued. Supposedly, the email is the third \u00a0and last billing notification for the service. The email claims to be from Australian based pharmaceutical supply company \u00a0and includes an attached Microsoft Word document supposedly containing \u00a0the invoice.<\/p>\n<p>However, the email is not from the company named \u00a0as the sender and I do not owe \u00a0the company any money. And, the attached Word document does not contain a \u00a0legitimate invoice. When I click on the attachment, I get a popup message asking me to enable macros. Supposedly, \u00a0the document is protected against unauthorised access and I must therefore enable macros before I can view the content.<\/p>\n<p>But, if I were to enable macros, a malicious macro would then run in the background. If i was using a Windows based computer, the macro \u00a0could download and install malware.<\/p>\n<p>The exact \u00a0nature of this malware payload may vary.<\/p>\n<p>Malicious macros are \u00a0commonly used \u00a0to install ransomware. Once installed, the ransomware can lock the files \u00a0on your computer and then demand that you pay a fee to online criminals to get a decryption \u00a0key.<\/p>\n<p>In other cases, the malware may be able to steal banking passwords and other sensitive personal information \u00a0from the infected computer.<\/p>\n<p>Macros can certainly be useful in some workflows. But, unless you have a \u00a0specific need to use them and you understand the potential dangers that they pose, you are best to leave macros disabled by default. If you are unfamiliar with macros, you can <a title=\"Macro Virus Threat Returns - Beware Emails With Malicious Word Attachments\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hoax-slayer.com\/word-macro-malware-emails.shtml\">read more about them<\/a> in this earlier Hoax-Slayer report.<\/p>\n<p>These malware emails often \u00a0address you by name, which can make them seem more legitimate. And, they use the names and \u00a0other details \u00a0of real companies.  \u00a0Of course, the companies named in the \u00a0emails have no connection to the malware attacks and did not send the messages.<\/p>\n<p>Other details, such as the supposed due date and amount due may vary in different versions of the emails.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hoax-slayer.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/malware-2016-35.jpg\" data-rel=\"penci-gallery-image-content\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"553\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.hoax-slayer.net\/you-have-received-a-5-page-fax-email-contains-malware\/malware-2016-35\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.hoax-slayer.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/malware-2016-35.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"800,566\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"malware-2016-35\" data-image-description=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.hoax-slayer.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/malware-2016-35-300x212.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.hoax-slayer.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/malware-2016-35.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-553\" src=\"https:\/\/hoax-slayer.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/malware-2016-35.jpg\" alt=\"Malware Threat\" width=\"800\" height=\"566\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hoax-slayer.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/malware-2016-35.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.hoax-slayer.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/malware-2016-35-300x212.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hoax-slayer.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/malware-2016-35-768x543.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.hoax-slayer.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/malware-2016-35-283x200.jpg 283w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- HS Net Bottom AdLinks --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-0355887770822260\" data-ad-slot=\"1358951439\" data-ad-format=\"link\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/div>\n<p class=\"date\">Last updated: \u00a0October 12, 2016<br \/>\nFirst published: \u00a0October 12, 2016<br \/>\nBy Brett M. Christensen<br \/>\n<a class=\"foot\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hoax-slayer.com\/about.shtml\">About Hoax-Slayer<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"ref\">References<br \/>\n<a title=\"Macro Virus Threat Returns - Beware Emails With Malicious Word Attachments\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hoax-slayer.com\/word-macro-malware-emails.shtml\">Macro Virus Threat Returns &#8211; Beware Emails With Malicious Word Attachments<\/a><br \/>\n<a title=\"Loads Of Macro Malware 'Invoice' Emails Hitting Inboxes\" href=\"http:\/\/hoax-slayer.net\/loads-of-macro-malware-invoice-emails-hitting-inboxes\/\">Loads Of Macro Malware &#8216;Invoice&#8217; Emails Hitting Inboxes<\/a><br \/>\n<a title=\"\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Billing Status Overdue\" Emails Contain Macro Malware\" href=\"http:\/\/hoax-slayer.net\/billing-status-overdue-emails-contain-macro-malware\/\">\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Billing Status Overdue&#8221; Emails Contain Macro Malware<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><\/br><\/br> Original Source : <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hoax-slayer.net\/past-due-invoice-ultimate-alert-email-contains-macro-malware\/\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.hoax-slayer.net\/past-due-invoice-ultimate-alert-email-contains-macro-malware\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Outline: Rather threatening email claims to be the third and last billing notification for a service and warns that the service will be discontinued in the next \u00a048 hours if you do not take this last chance to settle a past due \u00a0invoice by opening an attached Microsoft Word document. Brief Analysis: The email is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6890,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hoax-inggris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.syyhoaxanalyzer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.syyhoaxanalyzer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.syyhoaxanalyzer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.syyhoaxanalyzer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.syyhoaxanalyzer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.syyhoaxanalyzer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.syyhoaxanalyzer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.syyhoaxanalyzer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.syyhoaxanalyzer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.syyhoaxanalyzer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}