How to recognize fake messages like "Spotify Membership Has Expired"

What is "Spotify Membership Has Expired" scam?

We have inspected the email and found that it contains a fake notification from Spotify regarding a supposedly expired membership. It is a phishing email containing a link to a fake website, which scammers use to steal personal information from unsuspecting individuals. It should be ignored to avoid account hijacking (or other issues).

More about the "Spotify Membership Has Expired" scam email

This scam email claims to be from Spotify and notifies recipients that their membership has expired. It offers a "loyalty program" and suggests that recipients can extend their membership for 90 days for $9.95, including six Premium accounts for family members. The email provides a button to extend and activate the membership.

Overall, the email is designed to appear official but is actually a scam attempting to trick recipients into opening a fake website. On that site, visitors are instructed to provide personal information, such as first and last names, address, postcode, city, mobile number, and email to complete a "secure checkout".

It is highly likely that this website also requests credit card details and payment for a fake subscription. Falling for this scam can result in monetary loss, identity theft, or other serious issues. Thus, the email and fake website should not be trusted to avoid the potential risks.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this email is a phishing scam disguised as an official Spotify message. It aims to steal personal and financial information through a fake website. Recipients should ignore the email and avoid providing any details to protect themselves from fraud and identity theft.

Examples of other scam emails are "Encrypted Fax Document Received", "DHL - Package With Air Waybill Has Been Delivered", and "Exodus Wallet Verification". It is important to know that scam emails can be used to distribute malware.

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Threat actors often deliver malware via email by including malicious attachments. These can be executable files (.exe), Office documents, archives (such as ZIP or RAR), PDFs, script files, and other file types. Opening these files or enabling certain features, like macros, can allow the malware to infect the device.

Emails may also include links to malicious websites. Visiting these sites can either trigger automatic downloads of malware or trick users into manually downloading and running harmful programs. Typically, malware requires the user to interact with these attachments or links in order to compromise the system.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Avoid opening attachments or clicking links in suspicious, irrelevant, or unexpected emails or messages from unknown senders. Download software and files from official sites or trusted app stores, and steer clear of pirated programs, cracks, or key generators. When browsing online, be careful with pop-ups, ads, links, or buttons on suspicious websites.

Additionally, do not allow shady sites to send you notifications. Ensure your operating system and applications are always up to date, and perform regular scans with a reputable antivirus or anti-malware program.

Text presented in the "Spotify Membership Has Expired" email letter:

Subject: Your Spotify membership expired - extend your membership For FREE!!

Spotify

Your membership has expired!

Dear customer,

Your membership has expired.

But as a part of our loyalty program, you can now extend 90 days for just $9.95 Six Premium accounts for family members living under the same roof. Cancel anytime.

[Extend and Activate]

A fake Spotify website used in this scam:

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Quick menu:

• What is Spotify Membership Has Expired fake notification?
• 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?

Cybercriminals send deceptive emails to large groups, using addresses gathered from security leaks, fake websites, and similar sources. Usually, these emails are not targeted.

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

Change any passwords that may have been exposed. For other sensitive information, like banking or identification details, reach out directly to the appropriate institutions.

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

Executables often launch malicious programs instantly, whereas documents, archives (or other files) generally rely on user interaction, such as enabling macros or running an included installer, before malware activates.

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

Deceptive emails are safe until a user clicks a link, opens a file, or performs an action that allows the malicious content to run. Thus, your computer is not infected if you did not interact with its content.

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

The application can remove most known malware, but a full system scan is necessary to ensure that all sophisticated threats are detected and removed.