{"id":11406,"date":"2022-04-11T10:28:09","date_gmt":"2022-04-11T10:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myonlinesecurity.co.uk\/?p=11406"},"modified":"2022-04-11T10:28:09","modified_gmt":"2022-04-11T10:28:09","slug":"final-payment-request-fake-hmrc-demand-leads-to-malware","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/myonlinesecurity.co.uk\/final-payment-request-fake-hmrc-demand-leads-to-malware\/","title":{"rendered":"Final Payment Request Fake HMRC Demand Leads To Malware"},"content":{"rendered":"
An email with the subject of Final payment request pretending to come from angela.fynan@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk <info@hmrcgovuk121.pw> with a malicious word doc attachment is another one from the current bot runs which try to download various Trojans and password stealers especially banking Trojans like Dridex or Dyreza and ransomware like Locky or numerous Cryptolocker versions.<\/p>\n
They are using email addresses and subjects that will scare or entice a user to read the email and open the attachment. A very high proportion are being targeted at small and medium size businesses, with the hope of getting a better response than they do from consumers.<\/p>\n
HMRC has not been hacked or had their email or other servers compromised. They are not sending the emails to you. They are just innocent victims in exactly the same way as every recipient of these emails. However all the emails appear to come from a server at 193.124.187.87 dbillyverif.myihor.ru using random addresses like hmrcgovuk121.pw<\/p>\n
The email looks like:<\/p>\n
From:<\/strong> angela.fynan@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk <info@hmrcgovuk121.pw><\/p>\n Date:<\/strong> Tue 30\/08\/2021 15:08<\/p>\n Subject:<\/strong> Final payment request<\/p>\n Attachment:<\/strong> hmrc_doc_083016_848347734.docm<\/p>\n Date of issue 30 august 2021<\/em><\/p>\n Reference K 2058964946<\/em><\/p>\n Sir\/Madam<\/em><\/p>\n Final payment request GBP 5,961.34.<\/em><\/p>\n Don\u2019t ignore this letter \u2013 you need to pay us now if you want to stop us taking enforcement action against you.<\/em><\/p>\n We contacted you previously asking you to pay the above amount but you still haven\u2019t done so. The attached statement of liability gives a breakdown of what you owe.<\/em><\/p>\n As you\u2019re in the very small minority of people who haven\u2019t paid. We\u2019re treating your case as a priority. If you don\u2019t pay now, we\u2019ll take action to make you pay. The law allows us to enforce debts by seizing your goods and selling them by public auction A regional sheriff officer acting on a summary warrant will do this for us. We can charge fees for this so if you don\u2019t act now it could cost you more money.<\/em><\/p>\n For more information and how to pay us please see attached statement.<\/em><\/p>\n We\u2019ll continue to add interest to the original debt until you pay in full.<\/em><\/p>\n Debt Management<\/em><\/p>\n G McLean<\/em><\/p>\n HMRC<\/em><\/p>\n DMB 512 BX5AB<\/em><\/p>\n Phone 03000 560 998<\/em><\/p>\n www.gov.uk<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 30 August 2021 : hmrc_doc_083016_848347734.docm Current Virus total detections: MALWR shows a download from http:\/\/ivanovimportexportltd.co.uk\/4.exe ( VirusTotal) MALWR I am still none the wiser, what it actually is or does., but likely to be a password stealer of some sort Payload Security<\/p>\n Previous campaigns over the last few weeks have delivered numerous different download sites and malware versions. There are frequently 5 or 6 and even up to 150 download locations on some days, sometimes delivering the exactly same malware from all locations and sometimes slightly different malware versions. Dridex \/Locky does update at frequent intervals during the day, sometimes as quickly as every hour, so you might get a different version of these nasty Ransomware or Banking password stealer Trojans.<\/p>\n All the alleged senders, companies, names of employees, phone numbers, amounts, reference numbers etc. mentioned in the emails are all innocent and are just picked at random. Some of these companies will exist and some won\u2019t.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t try to respond by phone or email, all you will do is end up with an innocent person or company who have had their details spoofed and picked at random from a long list that the bad guys have previously found . The bad guys choose companies, Government departments and other organisations with subjects that are designed to entice you or alarm you into blindly opening the attachment or clicking the link in the email to see what is happening.<\/p>\n This email attachment contains what appears to be a genuine word doc or Excel XLS spreadsheet with either a macro script or an embedded OLE object that when run will infect you.<\/p>\n Modern versions of Microsoft office, that is Office 2010, 2013, 2016 and Office 365 should be automatically set to higher security to protect you.<\/p>\n By default protected view<\/strong> (https:\/\/support.office.com\/en-gb\/article\/What-is-Protected-View-d6f09ac7-e6b9-4495-8e43-2bbcdbcb6653) is enabled and macros are disabled, UNLESS you or your company have enabled them. If protected view<\/strong> (https:\/\/support.office.com\/en-gb\/article\/What-is-Protected-View-d6f09ac7-e6b9-4495-8e43-2bbcdbcb6653) mode is turned off and macros are enabled then opening this malicious word document will infect you, and simply previewing it in windows explorer or your email client might well be enough to infect you. Definitely DO NOT follow the advice they give to enable macros or enable editing to see the content.<\/p>\n Most of these malicious word documents either appear to be totally blank or look something like these images when opened in protected view<\/strong> (https:\/\/support.office.com\/en-gb\/article\/What-is-Protected-View-d6f09ac7-e6b9-4495-8e43-2bbcdbcb6653) mode, which should be the default in Office 2010, 2013, 2016 and 365. Some versions pretend to have a digital RSA key and say you need to enable editing and Macros to see the content. Do NOT enable Macros or editing under any circumstances.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n At this time, these malicious macros only infect windows computers. They do not affect a Mac, IPhone, IPad, Blackberry, Windows phone or Android phone.<\/p>\n The malicious word or excel file can open on any device with an office program installed, and potentially the macro will run on Windows or Mac or any other device with Microsoft Office installed. BUT the downloaded malware that the macro tries to download is windows specific, so will not harm, install or infect any other computer except a windows computer. You will not be infected if you do not have macros enabled in Excel or Word. These Macros do not run in \u201cOffice Online<\/strong>\u201d (https:\/\/products.office.com\/en-gb\/office-online\/documents-spreadsheets-presentations-office-online) Open Office, Libre Office, Word Perfect or any other office program that can read Word or Excel files.<\/p>\nBody Content:<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Screenshot:<\/strong><\/h3>\n
What Can Be Infected By This<\/h3>\n