Protect Yourself and Report the Latest Frauds, Scams, Spams, Fakes, Identify Theft Hacks and Hoaxes
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Scammers take advantage of every major news event, and especially emergencies, to trick people into opening emails, attachments and websites that contain malware or lure visitors into giving up confidential information.
The Coronavirus event is no different. And be sure to see this page about scam coronavirus cures and products .
Scammers are sending emails that claim to provide information about how to protect yourself against the coronavirus.
The emails contain an attached Word document that contains malware, more specifically, a variety called Emotet.
At first, the scammers are using stolen emails to send messages that claim to be from Japanese health organizations. The emails include attachments that, according to the spammers, will tell you how to avoid Coronavirus (a.k.a, 2019-nCoV). IOf course, by clicking on the attachment, you infect your computer or device with their malware.
If you click on the attachment, you will see the standard Emotet Office 365 document template that asks you to "Enable Content" to properly view the full document. If you do that, the Emotet payload will be installed on the computer or device using a PowerShell command.
The infected computer will then be used to
Right now (February 2020) the scammers are targeting people in Japan, so the emails are written in Japanese. Expect that to quickly morph into other languages, just like the real world virus morphs.
Odds are good that your computer is infected with Emotet.
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