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Wednesday 3 September 2014

Fake westlothian.gov.uk "NDR Bill" email

Sometimes spammers come up with weird approaches. This one is a bill from West Lothian Council in the UK.. well, actually it isn't a bill but it comes with a malicious attachment.

From:     Ebilling [Ebilling@westlothian.gov.uk]
Date:     3 September 2014 09:20
Subject:     NDR Bill

Please find attached your Non Domestic Rates bill.

If your account is in credit you are due a refund unless you have any other debt due to the Council.

To allow your credit to be processed please confirm:

- If you want the credit transferred to another account you have with us. Please confirm the account details.
- If you want the credit refunded by cheque, please confirm who it should be sent to and the address.

Links to Non Domestic Rates information are detailed below.

Important Note:
If you access these links using a mobile phone the network provider may charge for this service.

Yours sincerely
Scott Reid
Revenues Manager

 http://www.westlothian.gov.uk/media/downloaddoc/1799465/1851216/2395547

* PDF Viewer required.

This message, together with any attachments, is sent subject to the
following statements:

1.    It is sent in confidence for the addressee only.  It may
    contain legally privileged information.  The contents are
    not to be disclosed to anyone other than the addressee.
    Unauthorised recipients are requested to preserve this
    confidentiality and to advise the sender immediately.
2.    It does not constitute a representation which is legally
    binding on the Council or which is capable of constituting
    a contract and may not be founded upon in any proceedings
    following hereon unless specifically indicated otherwise.

http://www.westlothian.gov.uk

Attached is a file 00056468.pdf.zip which contains a malicious executable D0110109.PDF.exe (which has an icon to make it look like a PDF file). This has a low detection rate at VirusTotal of 4/55.

The Comodo CAMAS report shows that it downloads an additional component from the following locations:

paodeler.com/333
awat.ugu.pl/333
twigsite.org/333
chico-assen.nl/333
beckerseguros.com.br/333
vacacionescosta.com.ar/333
frere-bros.com/333
kaituforumas.lt/333
www.van-der-leest.nl/333
lavetrinadeimotori.it/333
uj.spexx.hu/333
hamalabeachresort.com/333
voladora.com/333
ccemanpower.com/333
tiptrans.com.tr/333
areteeventos.com.br/333
ochodiez.com.ar/333
www.alabiimoveis.com/333
www.tbdistributors.co.nz/333
itspecialist.ro/333
groupgraphic.dk/333

This second component has a VT detection rate of just 3/55. The Anubis report shows an attempted phone home to 80.94.160.129 (National Academy of Sciences of Belarus) and 92.222.46.165 (OVH, France)

Recommended blocklist:
80.94.160.129
92.222.46.165
paodeler.com
awat.ugu.pl
twigsite.org
chico-assen.nl
beckerseguros.com.br
vacacionescosta.com.ar
frere-bros.com
kaituforumas.lt
van-der-leest.nl
lavetrinadeimotori.it
uj.spexx.hu
hamalabeachresort.com
voladora.com
ccemanpower.com
tiptrans.com.tr
areteeventos.com.br
ochodiez.com.ar
alabiimoveis.com
tbdistributors.co.nz
itspecialist.ro
groupgraphic.dk



2 comments:

ultrasupergenius said...

Thanks for your write up. A colleague of mine received the same email today and sent it to my attention to investigate. The link appears to have been taken down from the Westlothian.gov.uk site - as it no longer resolves.

I greatly appreciate you documenting your investigation into this - very helpful!

Unknown said...

Thanks. Just received one of these today