Warning Over BACS Email Scam

Here at Ponticello we’re advising all our clients to be aware of scam emails containing dangerous attachments.

Since mid-December we have seen a large number of infected DOC and XLS attachments in emails.

Most recently, infected email is targeted at the finance departments of small and medium sized businesses.

A typical email looks like this:

Subject:

PAYMENT ADVICE 06-JAN-2015.

Content:

Dear all,

Payment has been made to you in amount GBP14223,83 by BACS. See attachment.

Regards,

Ariel Austin

Senior Accountant

Attachment: BACS379386_683.doc 87KB is size.

The infection is a macro in the attachment. The macro attempts to connect to the Internet to download an executable file containing a virus.

The virus has a password stealing component, with the aim of stealing bank, PayPal or other financial details, along with email or FTP credentials.

Many are also designed to specifically steal Facebook – and other social network – log in details.

Please be aware and take extra care before opening attachments.