What kind of malspam is "Company's Annual Dinner"

What is "Company's Annual Dinner" email virus?

After inspecting this email, we determined that it is malspam. The message pretends to be a business inquiry from a travel and tour company representative planning a corporate dinner and requesting hotel bookings. In reality, its purpose is to deliver malware onto the recipient's device, so it should be ignored and deleted.

"Company's Annual Dinner" email virus overview

The email is written as a routine hotel booking inquiry. The sender, who signs as a travel and tour advisor, claims to be arranging a corporation's annual dinner and asks the recipient's hotel to quote room availability for 19 rooms and 33 guests, plus confirm vegan and halal catering options.

ATPI Travel and Tour is presented as the sender's employer, but nothing ties this message to the real, legitimate ATPI Group. Cybercriminals frequently borrow names of established travel and logistics companies to make their requests appear ordinary and trustworthy.

The email contains a small image made to look like a purchase order or invoice preview. It is not a static picture - clicking it opens a link that downloads a JavaScript file onto the device. Running that file triggers a chain of hidden commands designed to install malware without further warning.

The exact malware delivered through this script is currently unknown. It could be a trojan built to steal saved passwords and banking details, a keylogger that records everything typed, or ransomware that encrypts files for a payout.

Other possibilities include a remote access trojan that lets attackers control the machine, or a cryptocurrency miner that quietly uses the computer's resources. Running the downloaded file can lead to stolen credentials, drained accounts, or a computer silently controlled by cybercriminals.

Anyone who has already clicked the image and run the resulting file should treat the device as compromised and scan it with a legitimate antivirus tool immediately.

Conclusion

This email is not a genuine hotel booking request. It is spam crafted to look like an ordinary business inquiry so that hotel staff open the embedded image without hesitation. Doing so starts a chain that can end with a badly compromised computer, so the message should be deleted without interacting with any of its contents.

Examples of similar malspam we have investigated are Contract Procurement, Adobe Acrobat - Secure Document, and DocuSign - Legal Department Document.

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Malware-spreading emails typically rely on attachments or embedded links. Attachments can be disguised as documents, PDFs, archives, or executables that hide malicious code behind a harmless-looking icon. Links behave similarly, sending victims to pages or files that trigger a download the moment they are opened.

In this case, the trap is a clickable image rather than a traditional file attachment. It behaves like a shortcut to a download page for a JavaScript file, and running that script is enough to start installing malware, with no macro or additional confirmation window involved.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Business-sounding requests are a favorite disguise for spam campaigns, so any unexpected booking inquiry, purchase order, or invoice deserves a second look before its contents are opened. Verify the sender through a separate channel and check whether the request matches the volume of correspondence the business normally receives.

Keep the operating system, browser, and security software updated, and avoid downloading files or software from sources outside their official channels. Cracked software and key generators are common decoys for malware, so stay away from them entirely.

If you have already opened the malicious image or run the downloaded file, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate infiltrated malware.

Text presented in the "Company's Annual Dinner" email letter:

Subject: Enquiry – Annual Dinner and rooms availabilty in your hotel

Hi sir/ma,

Good day. I am Maggie from ATPI Travel and Tour. We are planning our company's annual dinner and would like to enquire about hosting the event at your hotel and would need rooms.

Please find our event requirements in the list below:

No. of Guests: 33 pax

Room: 19 rooms

Kindly also confirm if your restaurant is vegan and halal-certified.

We would appreciate your quotation at your earliest convenience. Please feel free to contact me should you require any further details.

Thank you and looking forward to your reply.

Maggie Chong
Travel & Tour Advisor
M: +6012 5199 509
P: +603 64201390
Suite 12-02-E, Level 12
G Tower, Jalan Tun Razak
50450 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia

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Quick menu:

• What is Company's Annual Dinner malspam?
• 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?

These emails are not personal even though they can look tailored to a business. Cybercriminals send the same message to a wide list of addresses collected from data breaches, scraped websites, or purchased contact lists, hoping enough recipients open the image inside.

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

If any account credentials were entered somewhere after interacting with this email, change those passwords immediately. Contact your bank without delay if financial details were shared, and monitor accounts for unauthorized activity.

I have clicked the image in this email and downloaded a file, is my computer infected?

Whether an infection was triggered depends on whether the downloaded JavaScript file was actually opened and run. Scripts like this one generally execute as soon as they are launched, unlike documents that may first require enabling macros or other extra steps.

I have read the email but did not click the image, is my computer infected?

No. Simply reading the email cannot install anything on its own. Infection only begins once the embedded image is clicked and the resulting file is downloaded and opened.

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

Combo Cleaner can detect and remove most known malware, though some advanced threats may hide deeper within the system. Running a full system scan is recommended to catch anything that a quick scan alone might miss.