Upgrade Your Edition Of Microsoft Word Email Virus

What is "Upgrade your edition of Microsoft Word Email Virus"?

"Upgrade your edition of Microsoft Word Email Virus" is a spam campaign that cyber criminals use to spread the Emotet infection. This is a trojan-type program, a high-risk computer infection. To trick people into installing this software, cyber criminals send emails that contain a malicious attachment, a Microsoft Word document.

The main purpose of this spam campaign is to trick recipients into opening the attachment. To keep your computer safe, we recommend that you ignore this email.

Cyber criminals often present this email as an invoice. Few other details are provide (as in this example), however, this is usually enough to make people curious and to trick them into opening presented web links or attached files. In this case, the attached file is a Microsoft Word (.doc) document.

Once opened, it encourages users to update Microsoft Office and encourages recipients to enable editing and then to enable content - i.e., to enable macros commands that will disable "Protected View" mode. Disabling this mode allows this malicious document to download Emotet, a trojan-type computer infection.

The Emotet program records personal data and proliferates other viruses. Typically, it targets information such as logins, passwords, and data relating to users' browsing habits. This might cause financial loss and serious privacy issues. It also operates as a Trojan - it downloads and installs other malicious programs.

At time of research, Emotet was used to download and install the Qakbot and TrickBot trojans. These infections also steal sensitive details. Qakbot is categorized as a banking trojan (steals information relating to bank accounts). TrickBot targets even more accounts, such as cryptocurrency wallets, PayPal, bank accounts, and other personal accounts.

Therefore, opening the attachment included in the "Upgrade your edition of Microsoft Word Email Virus" email can lead to serious problems. We strongly recommend that you ignore this email.

Threat Summary:

Name	Upgrade Your Edition Of Microsoft Word spam
Threat Type	Trojan, Password stealing virus, Banking malware, Spyware.
Symptoms	Trojans are designed to stealthily infiltrate the victim's computer and remain silent. Thus, no particular symptoms are clearly visible on an infected machine.
Distribution methods	Infected email attachments, malicious online advertisements, social engineering, software cracks.
Damage	Stolen banking information, passwords, identity theft, victim's computer added to a botnet.
Malware Removal (Windows)	To eliminate possible malware infections, scan your computer with legitimate antivirus software. Our security researchers recommend using Combo Cleaner. ▼ Download Combo Cleaner To use full-featured product, you have to purchase a license for Combo Cleaner. 7 days free trial available. Combo Cleaner is owned and operated by Rcs Lt, the parent company of PCRisk.com read more.

There are many spam campaigns that cyber criminals use to spread high-risk viruses including, for example, "Confirm Bank Account Email Virus", "Sendinc Email Virus", and "O2 Bill Email Virus". They proliferate computer infections such as Adwind, Pony, FormBook, AZORult, the aforementioned TrickBot, Qakbot infections, and many others.

Generally, programs of this type generate revenue for developers by stealing personal data or by proliferating other programs that are capable of this.

Emotet trojan technical analysis:

• Detection names: Avast (Other:Malware-gen [Trj]), BitDefender (Trojan.GenericKD.41168417), Kaspersky (HEUR:Trojan.MSOffice.SAgent.gen), ESET-NOD32 (VBA/TrojanDownloader.Agent.NKE)
• Full list of antivirus detections: VirusTotal
• Executable filename: emotet_e2_4d8972a8e9daf54dfb3fdb47c1d40594b085c83cb77a593d56fb90bdbfc9e933_2019-04-01__212503.doc
• Sample first submitted: 2019-04-01 (created 2019-04-01)

How did "Upgrade your edition of Microsoft Word Email Virus" infect my computer?

As mentioned above, cyber criminals send emails with attached files that are presented as invoices. Once opened, a malicious MS Word document displays an image stating that MS Office should be updated. It encourages people to enable editing and content - requesting permission to enable macros commands.

If permission is granted, the malicious document downloads and installs Emotet. Most spam campaigns of this type cause computer infections in very similar or identical ways - people are encouraged to open attachments or web links that lead to them and, once opened, they download and install computer infections.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Ignore emails that contain various attachments (or web links that lead to them) and are received from suspicious, unknown email addresses. If a received email is irrelevant, or you are unsure whether it is safe to open a file attached to it, the best option is to ignore the message and attachment.

Do not download software using third party downloaders, unofficial websites, torrent clients, eMule (and other Peer-to-peer networks). The safest way to download is from official websites, other trustworthy sources, and using direct links.

Additionally, update installed software correctly - use tools or implemented functions that are provided by official software developers, and not third party updaters or other unofficial tools. Software 'cracking' tools cannot be trusted and it is illegal to use them. Furthermore, they often download and install viruses rather than activating software free of charge.

Finally, have reputable anti-virus/anti-spyware software installed and enabled. This can prevent computer infection by viruses. If you have already opened "Upgrade your edition of Microsoft Word Email Virus" attachment, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate infiltrated malware.

"Upgrade your edition of Microsoft Word Email Virus" email example:

Text presented in the "Upgrade your edition of Microsoft Word Email Virus" email message:

Dear Valued Customer:
Invoice 501993-19
Due: 04/02/2019
Amount Due: $1,801.00
We look forward to working with you.
P. 808.526.2795 F. 808.526.2554
Sent from my Samsung device

Attachment: 501993-19.doc

Instant automatic malware removal: Manual threat removal might be a lengthy and complicated process that requires advanced IT skills. Combo Cleaner is a professional automatic malware removal tool that is recommended to get rid of malware. Download it by clicking the button below:
▼ DOWNLOAD Combo Cleaner By downloading any software listed on this website you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. To use full-featured product, you have to purchase a license for Combo Cleaner. 7 days free trial available. Combo Cleaner is owned and operated by Rcs Lt, the parent company of PCRisk.com read more.

Quick menu:

• What is Upgrade Your Edition Of Microsoft Word spam?
• Types of malicious emails.
• How to spot a malicious email?
• What to do if you fell for an email scam?

Types of malicious emails:

Phishing Emails

Most commonly, cybercriminals use deceptive emails to trick Internet users into giving away their sensitive private information, for example, login information for various online services, email accounts, or online banking information.

Such attacks are called phishing. In a phishing attack, cybercriminals usually send an email message with some popular service logo (for example, Microsoft, DHL, Amazon, Netflix), create urgency (wrong shipping address, expired password, etc.), and place a link which they hope their potential victims will click on.

After clicking the link presented in such email message, victims are redirected to a fake website that looks identical or extremely similar to the original one. Victims are then asked to enter their password, credit card details, or some other information that gets stolen by cybercriminals.

Emails with Malicious Attachments

Another popular attack vector is email spam with malicious attachments that infect users' computers with malware. Malicious attachments usually carry trojans that are capable of stealing passwords, banking information, and other sensitive information.

In such attacks, cybercriminals' main goal is to trick their potential victims into opening an infected email attachment. To achieve this goal, email messages usually talk about recently received invoices, faxes, or voice messages.

If a potential victim falls for the lure and opens the attachment, their computers get infected, and cybercriminals can collect a lot of sensitive information.

While it's a more complicated method to steal personal information (spam filters and antivirus programs usually detect such attempts), if successful, cybercriminals can get a much wider array of data and can collect information for a long period of time.

Sextortion Emails

This is a type of phishing. In this case, users receive an email claiming that a cybercriminal could access the webcam of the potential victim and has a video recording of one's masturbation.

To get rid of the video, victims are asked to pay a ransom (usually using Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency). Nevertheless, all of these claims are false - users who receive such emails should ignore and delete them.

How to spot a malicious email?

While cyber criminals try to make their lure emails look trustworthy, here are some things that you should look for when trying to spot a phishing email:

• Check the sender's ("from") email address: Hover your mouse over the "from" address and check if it's legitimate. For example, if you received an email from Microsoft, be sure to check if the email address is @microsoft.com and not something suspicious like @m1crosoft.com, @microsfot.com, @account-security-noreply.com, etc.
• Check for generic greetings: If the greeting in the email is "Dear user", "Dear @youremail.com", "Dear valued customer", this should raise suspiciousness. Most commonly, companies call you by your name. Lack of this information could signal a phishing attempt.
• Check the links in the email: Hover your mouse over the link presented in the email, if the link that appears seems suspicious, don't click it. For example, if you received an email from Microsoft and the link in the email shows that it will go to firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0... you shouldn't trust it. It's best not to click any links in the emails but to visit the company website that sent you the email in the first place.
• Don't blindly trust email attachments: Most commonly, legitimate companies will ask you to log in to their website and to view any documents there; if you received an email with an attachment, it's a good idea to scan it with an antivirus application. Infected email attachments are a common attack vector used by cybercriminals.

To minimise the risk of opening phishing and malicious emails we recommend using Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows. 

Example of a spam email:

What to do if you fell for an email scam?

• If you clicked on a link in a phishing email and entered your password - be sure to change your password as soon as possible. Usually, cybercriminals collect stolen credentials and then sell them to other groups that use them for malicious purposes. If you change your password in a timely manner, there's a chance that criminals won't have enough time to do any damage.
• If you entered your credit card information - contact your bank as soon as possible and explain the situation. There's a good chance that you will need to cancel your compromised credit card and get a new one.
• If you see any signs of identity theft - you should immediately contact the Federal Trade Commission. This institution will collect information about your situation and create a personal recovery plan.
• If you opened a malicious attachment - your computer is probably infected, you should scan it with a reputable antivirus application. For this purpose, we recommend using Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows.
• Help other Internet users - report phishing emails to Anti-Phishing Working Group, FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, National Fraud Information Center and U.S. Department of Justice.

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