How to spot scams like the fake "Next Holidays" email

What is the fake "Next Holidays" email?

Our team has reviewed the email and found that it is a scam disguised as a message from Next Holidays. The email also contains a fraudulent attachment. Scammers use this fraudulent email to steal personal information from recipients. It should be ignored and deleted to avoid potential negative outcomes.

More about the "Next Holidays" scam email

The scam email appears to come from Next Holidays (an online travel agency based in Dubai, UAE). It claims to be a travel inquiry for a holiday booking for five adults and three children in July 2026. The email requests a travel package quote, stating that customer information is attached. It is crafted to trick recipients into opening the attachment ("Holiday for 5 Adults + 3 Child.shtml").

The attachment contains a fake blurred document. It instructs users to enter their email address and password (login credentials) to sign in and view the file. The entered details are sent to scammers who can misuse them for malicious purposes. For instance, they can try to access email, social media, banking, or other accounts.

With access to personal accounts, scammers may harvest sensitive information, send phishing links or malicious files, make fraudulent purchases or transactions, steal identities, and more. Thus, it is important to examine emails before disclosing personal information or opening the included files or links. Falling for scams can lead to various issues, including monetary loss and identity theft.

Similar scam emails in general

These emails often impersonate legitimate businesses, organizations, or other entities to trick recipients into opening attachments or clicking links. These often lead to fake login pages that steal personal details. Sometimes, fraudulent emails can contain malware. Recipients should always verify unexpected messages before opening files or entering any personal information.

Some examples of similar scams are "Unrecognized Lоgіn Attempt", "Your Account Will Be Cancelled", and "Suspicious Logins To Your Mailbox".

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Cybercriminals often use email to infect devices by planting malware inside attached files such as .exe files, Word or PDF documents, zipped folders, or script files. Opening these attachments or enabling certain features (like macros) can launch the malware on devices.

Also, malicious emails can include a link that leads to a fake or compromised website. These sites are designed to either automatically download malware or trick the user into downloading it manually.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Be cautious when receiving emails from unknown sources (addresses or people)—especially if the content seems suspicious or unrelated. Do not click on links or open attachments in such messages. Only download software from official websites or reputable app stores.

Also, avoid clicking pop-ups, advertisements, and suspicious links on untrustworthy websites, and never permit them to send notifications. Keep your operating system and applications up to date, and use trusted antivirus tools to scan your device regularly for threats. If you have already opened malicious attachments, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate infiltrated malware.

Text presented in the "Next Holidays" email letter:

Subject: Holiday for 5 Adults + 3 Child (11 & 8 Years) from 13 to 25 July 2026

Dear Sir/Mam,

Greetings from Next Holidays [Friends Travels & Tourism LLC]

Please quote the best package for our client, kindly find attached customer information as required.

I'm looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Best regards,

Thanks & Regards

AbdeAli Mansur

+971 524559150

bde.uae@nextholidays.com

Next Holidays

1605 Regal Tower, Business Bay

Dubai, UAE

Screenshot of the phishing attachment ("Holiday for 5 Adults + 3 Child.shtml"):

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Quick menu:

• What is Next Holidays scam email?
• 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.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Why did I receive this email?

If you got a scam email, it is likely that your address was collected from a data leak, an untrustworthy site, or a similar source. These types of emails are usually part of mass campaigns (they are not personal/targeted).

I have provided my personal information when tricked by this email, what should I do?

If you entered your login credentials on a fraudulent site, update the passwords for any potentially affected accounts immediately. If you are locked out of an account, reach out to the service's support team.

I have downloaded and opened a file attached to an email, is my computer infected?

If you opened a malicious executable file (such as a .exe), there is a strong chance your device was compromised. However, opening documents like PDFs or Office files poses less risk unless you enable content or perform other actions that could activate malware.

I have read the email but did not open the attachment, is my computer infected?

Simply opening an email cannot execute malware on a computer. However, clicking on links or opening attachments within suspicious or deceptive messages can lead to malware infiltration or malicious pages.

Will Combo Cleaner remove malware infections that were present in email attachment?

Combo Cleaner is effective at finding and removing most types of malware. Because some infections can hide deep within the system, running a full scan is essential to ensure all threats are detected and eliminated.