What is the "American Express - Personal Loan Approved" email scam

What is "American Express - Personal Loan Approved" email scam?

We have inspected this email and determined that it is a phishing scam impersonating American Express. The message claims that a personal loan worth $18,940.00 has been approved for the recipient, then uses a fake security alert to lure them into clicking a verification link. The scammers behind it are after personal and financial information, and the email should be ignored entirely.

More about the "American Express - Personal Loan Approved" email

The email is branded as a message from the "AMEX Loan Center" and signed by a "Loan Protection Team," giving it an official appearance. It greets the recipient and announces that their application for a personal loan has been approved, with $18,940.00 scheduled to be sent to them on a specific date.

Right after the good news, the email pivots to a security warning. It claims the loan request came from an unfamiliar IP address or location, and that the funds were set to be sent to a different bank account, one ending in 2893 at PenFed Credit Union, than the account supposedly linked to the recipient's profile.

Two large buttons, "Yes" and "No," ask the recipient to confirm whether they requested this loan. The email even pressures recipients who do not recognize the request to press "No" right away to "cancel the application and secure" their account. In reality, both options likely lead to the same fraudulent page.

The website linked from this email is no longer active, so its exact appearance could not be confirmed. Based on the branding used, it was most likely designed to imitate American Express' online banking login page, asking visitors to enter their username, password, and possibly other account details to "verify" their identity. A slim chance also exists that it instead mimicked the recipient's email provider's login page.

Entering any information on that page, whatever it looked like, would hand it directly to the scammers. Stolen American Express credentials can be used to make unauthorized purchases, request real loans or cash advances, change account settings, and access other linked accounts, leading to financial loss and identity theft. American Express has no connection to this email, and no loan was ever applied for or approved.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this email is a phishing scam disguised as a loan approval notification from American Express. It aims to trick recipients into clicking a link that very likely leads to a fraudulent login page designed to steal account credentials and other personal information. Recipients should ignore the email and avoid clicking either button it contains.

Sometimes, scams like this are used to deliver malware.

More examples of similar scam emails are Benefits Review Notice, Insufficient Email Capacity, and Mailbox Quarantine Alert.

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Cybercriminals frequently use email to spread malware by attaching malicious files. These can be executables, Microsoft Office documents, PDFs, archive files such as ZIP or RAR, or scripts. Opening such a file, or enabling features like macros, can trigger an infection.

Spam emails can also contain links that lead to malicious websites. Visiting one of these pages may automatically start a download, or it may try to convince the visitor to manually download and run a harmful file. In nearly all cases, some form of user interaction is needed for the malware to actually infect the device.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Be cautious with emails from unknown senders, especially ones that create a sense of urgency or offer something too good to be true, such as an unexpected loan approval. Avoid clicking links or opening attachments in such messages.

Download software and apps only from official websites and stores, and avoid pirated content, cracks, and key generators, since these are commonly used to spread malware. Keep your operating system and installed programs updated, and use reputable antivirus software.

If you have already opened a malicious attachment or interacted with a suspicious email, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically detect and remove any malware that may have been installed.

Text presented in the "American Express - Personal Loan Approved" email letter:

Subject: Confirmation: Your personal loan has been approved

Personal loan approved: See details

American Express
AMEX LOAN CENTER
Account ending: 3XXXXX
Loan Protection Team

Your personal loan has been approved

Congratulations! Your application for a personal loan has been approved. Your approved loan amount is $18,940.00, and the funds are scheduled to be disbursed on Monday, June 15, 2026.

For security concerns, our system has identified potentially unusual activity regarding this loan request that requires verification:

The loan application was submitted from an unfamiliar IP address or geographic location.
The loan proceeds have been requested for disbursement to an account ending in 2893 at PenFed Credit Union, which differs from the account information currently associated with your profile.

To help ensure the security of your account, we kindly ask that you confirm whether you authorized this loan request and the designated disbursement account.

Do you initiated this loan request?

[Yes] [No]

If you do NOT recognize this request, or if neither you nor an authorized party initiated it, please select the "No" option to cancel the application and secure your account immediately.

Thank you for your Card Membership.

American Express Customer Care

Full appearance of the "American Express - Personal Loan Approved" scam email (GIF):

Instant automatic malware removal:

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Quick menu:

• What is American Express - Personal Loan Approved phishing scam?
• 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?

Scam emails like this one are sent out in mass campaigns rather than targeted at specific individuals. Cybercriminals usually obtain email addresses from data breaches, fake websites, and other similar sources.

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

If you clicked the link and entered any information on the page it opened, change the password for your American Express account and any other accounts using the same password immediately. If you entered banking or card details, contact American Express and your bank without delay to report potential fraud.

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

Executable files can infect a system as soon as they are opened, while documents, archives, and similar files usually need additional actions from the user, such as enabling macros or running an installer, before any malware can be activated.

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

No. Simply receiving and reading this email is not dangerous. Infection only occurs if you click the links inside it, or open and interact with an attached file.

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

Combo Cleaner can detect and remove most known malware infections through a full system scan, although some particularly advanced threats may occasionally evade detection.