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Friday 25 July 2014

HMRC "Tax Notice July 2014" spam

This fake HMRC tax notice comes with a malicious attachment:

Date:      Fri, 25 Jul 2014 16:48:37 +0900 [03:48:37 EDT]
From:      HMRC Revenue&Customs [Rosanne@hmrc.gov.uk]
Reply-To:      Legal Aid Agency [re-HN-WFCLL-OECGTZ@hmrc.gov.uk]


Dear [redacted] ,

Please be advised that one or more Tax Notices (P6, P6B) have been issued.

For the latest information on your Tax Notices (P6, P6B) please open attached report.
Document Reference: 34320-289.



The security and confidentiality of your personal information is important for us. If you have any questions, please either call the toll-free customer service phone number.
2014 © All rights reserved

Attached is a file P6_rep_34320-289.zip which unZips to a folder called P6_rep(9432)_84632_732.doc which contains a malicious executable P6_rep(9432)_84632_732.doc.scr which has a VirusTotal detection rate of 4/53.

The CAMAS report shows that a second component is downloaded from 37.139.47.167/bt/2.exe which in turn has a VirusTotal detection rate of 5/52.


The IP address of 37.139.47.167 is in the same /24 as the two other IPs mentioned here. I would very strongly recommend blocking traffic to at least 37.139.47.0/24 or the whole 37.139.40.0/21 range (although there do seem to be some legitimate Russian-language sites in there). The IP belongs to:

inetnum:        37.139.40.0 - 37.139.47.255
netname:        COMFORTEL-NET
descr:          COMFORTEL ltd.
country:        RU
admin-c:        ME3174-RIPE
tech-c:         RASS-RIPE
status:         ASSIGNED PA
mnt-by:         MNT-PIN
mnt-routes:     MNT-PIN
mnt-domains:    PIRIX-MNT
source:         RIPE # Filtered

person:         Mikhail Evdokimov
address:        PIRIX
address:        Obukhovskoy Oborony, 120-Z
address:        192012, St.Petersburg
address:        Russia
phone:          +7 812 3343610
fax-no:         +7 812 6002014
nic-hdl:        ME3174-RIPE
mnt-by:         RUNNET-MNT
source:         RIPE # Filtered

person:         Dmitry Rassohin
address:        194156, St.Petersburg, Russia
address:        Bolshoy Sampsonievskiy prospekt 106A, apt. 304
phone:          +7 931 2700021
nic-hdl:        RASS-RIPE
mnt-by:         RASS-MNT
source:         RIPE # Filtered

route:          37.139.40.0/21
descr:          PIRIXROUTE
origin:         AS56534
mnt-by:         MNT-PIN
source:         RIPE # Filtered

adminsecret.monster.com abused by spammers

I noticed a whole load of queries in URLquery about adminsecret.monster.com (such as this one) which I thought to be kind of odd..


"Adminsecret" sounds really interesting from a security perspective, but really it's a site aimed at executive assistants and people with similar roles.


The pages being queries are "articles" that look like this:


This doesn't look very much like a tip on how to be a better admin. There also appears to be a webspam campaign active to drive traffic to these sites:

So a mix of payday loans and movie downloads. So let's go back to this "Blended Movie Online" page with the prominent "Watch Now" button. This actually takes you to a site livingfilms.net that tantalisingly waves another "download" button at you.


Clicking "Download Now" leads you into a cesspit of adware. Instead of getting a move, you are directed to dowload a file Blended.exe from allbestnew.com. Of course, this isn't a move file at all, but some piece of crappy adware with a VirusTotal detection rate of 17/51 (mostly detected as InstallRex).

Various analysis tools [1] [2] [3] piece together what this adware does, but from a network point of view it makes a connection to the following domains:

r2.homebestmy.info
r1.homebestmy.info
c1.setepicnew.info
i1.superstoragemy.com
getdottamy.info
getyouraddon.co.il


This last one is the clue as to who is making this adware, registered to:

descr:        Justplug.it LTD
descr:        Harbel 10
descr:        Oranit Israel
descr:        4481300
descr:        Israel
phone:        +972 72 2124145
fax-no:       +972 72 2124145
e-mail:       admin AT justplug.it


Justplug.it allows you to make your own browser extensions. Hmm. Looks like a good candidate to block if you don't want unauthorised BHOs and the like.


So, for this particular issue I would recommend the following blocklist:

livingfilms.net
allbestnew.com
homebestmy.info
setepicnew.info
superstoragemy.com
getdottamy.info
getyouraddon.co.il

justplug.it

Back to the livingfilms.net site, if you want to watch the movie online instead of downloading it you get redirected to www.themovienation.com/signup?sf=blue_newjs&ref=82937 which is some sort of movie subscription service based in the British Virgin Islands. Frankly you'd be better off with Netflix, Amazon, Google or some other reputable service.


Oh yes.. and there's payday loan crap too:


So right now I would say that adminsecret.monster.com is horribly compromised and is probably a good candidate for blocking until they get the issues sorted out.

UPDATE: emails to info -at- adminsecret.com bounce, so far I have not been able to contact them.

Thursday 24 July 2014

Scam: "brunerinvestment.com" is not The Brunner Investment Trust PLC

This simple spam is backed up by a fairly sophisticated fake website.

From:     brunner investment [investment@brunner.com]
Reply-To:     brunnerinvestment@gmail.com
To:     50
Date:     24 July 2014 12:08

Dear

The Brunner Trust PLC, is working on expanding its international portfolio Globally and financing projects in form of debt financing from the tune of $1million to $500million,
we also offer personal and business loans from the tune of $100,000 USD to $1,000,000.00 USD

We would be happy to receive an Executive summary to see if you have any Viable project we can finance and partner together
by making financial investment in Form of soft loans.

Email your projects summary to us at: info@brunerinvestment.com

Regards,
Stefan Hofrichter
Chief Economist and Head of Global Economics & Strategy
The Brunner Investment Trust PLC is a real organisation with a website at brunner.co.uk - the domain that the spammers are soliciting replies to is brunerinvestment.com (note the missing "n" in "brunner"). It was registered on 31st May 2014 with anonymous WHOIS details.

This is the real Brunner Invesment Trust site:

And this is the fake one:


The differences are subtle:

Of course the main purpose of the web site is to encourage you to think that you are talking to a real person, to which end the contact details are completely fake:

Although the postal address is correct, the rest of the details are fake:

Brunner Investment Trust Plc
199 Bishopsgate,
London, EC2M 3TY
Tel:+44 703 195 6304
Tel/Fax: +44 745 227 1933
Email: info@brunerinvestment.com
brunnerinvestment@gmail.com
The telephone numbers quotes appear to be "follow me anywhere" numbers that forward to another number, which could be anywhere in the world.

So what's the scam? Well, there's probably an up-front fee to even discuss financing.. and if it's like this recent scam it could be tens of thousands of dollars. Of course, there is no financing available (remember that this is a fake site, not the Brunner Investment Trust) and once the scammers have your money they will vanish.

I note as well that the site is fairly well done although somewhat buggy (and it randomly pops up adverts) which looks rather like the same cloned websites I discussed earlier this month.

Some technical details for this - the site is hosted on 93.188.160.4 which is allocated to Hostinger International in Lithunia (although the servers might be in Amsterdam). The spam originates from 168.167.134.124 (Botswana Telecommunications Corporation) via an unknown mail relay on 82.105.253.84 (Telecom Italia, Verona, Italy).

Avoid.

"You have received a new VoiceMail" spam

This tired old malware spam is doing the rounds again.

From:      Voice Mail [voicemail_sender@local]
Subject:      You have received a new VoiceMail
Date:      Thu, 24 Jul 2014 17:31:25 +0700 [06:31:25 EDT]

You have received a voice mail message.
Message length is 00:03:27. 
As you might expect, the attachment VoiceMail.zip does not contain a voice mail at all, but it is a malicious executable VoiceMail.scr which has a a VirusTotal detection rate of 3/53.

The CAMAS report and Anubis report shows the malware downloading an encrypted file from the followng locations:

egozentrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/tor2800_2.7z
reneerlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/tor2800_2.7z


Blocking those sites may give some protection against this malware.

NatWest "You have received a secure message" spam

This spam contains a link going to a malicious file:

From:     NatWest [secure.message@natwest.co.uk]
Date:     24 July 2014 14:06
Subject:     You have received a new secure message


You have received a secure message

To read your secure message click here . You will be prompted to open (view) the file or save (download) it to your computer. For best results, save the file first, then open it.

If you have concerns about the validity of this message, please contact the sender directly. For questions please contact the NatWest Bank Secure Email Help Desk at 0131 556 2568.
First time users - will need to register after opening the attachment.

About Email Encryption - http://www.natwest.com/content/global_options/terms/Email_Encryption.pdf
Another version uses the telephone number 0131 556 2164.

There are probably several different versions, in the ones I have the download location is:

http://avlabpro.com/img/report934875438jdfg8i45jg_07242014.exe
http://dentairemalin.com/images/report934875438jdfg8i45jg_07242014.exe


This malware has a VirusTotal detection rate of 6/52. Automated analysis tools are inconclusive [1] [2] as to what it does.

Wednesday 23 July 2014

Birminghammail / Paul Fulford "Redirected message" spam

This spam pretends to be from a journalist called Paul Fulford at the Birmingham Mail. However, it isn't.. it is a forgery with a malicious attachment.

Date:      Wed, 23 Jul 2014 20:59:48 +0800 [08:59:48 EDT]
From:      Birminghammail [paul.fulford@birminghammail.co.uk]
Subject:      Redirected message

Dear [redacted]!

Please find attached the original letter received by our system.
I only have two samples of this, the originating IP addresses are:
1.34.211.10 (HINET, Taiwan)
117.212.18.140 (BSNL, India)

Poor Mr Fulford thinks that his email has been hacked.. it hasn't, but I suspect that he has pissed off some Russian spammers somewhere.


Attached is an archive file 1.zip which contains a malicious executable original_letter_234389_193.scr.exe which has a VirusTotal detection rate of 5/53. The Malwr report shows that this part reaches out to the following IPs:

37.139.47.103
37.139.47.117


Both of these belong to Comfortel Ltd in Russia. From there another file 2.exe is download which has a VT detection rate of just 3/53. The Malwr report is inconclusive.

I'm not familiar with the Russian host, but having two bad IPs in close proximity makes me think that you probably want to block at least 37.139.47.0/24 or the whole 37.139.40.0/21 (almost all sites are in the /24 anyway). This netblock contains a mix of what look like legitimate Russian-language sites and obvious phishing sites.

inetnum:        37.139.40.0 - 37.139.47.255
netname:        COMFORTEL-NET
descr:          COMFORTEL ltd.
country:        RU
admin-c:        ME3174-RIPE
tech-c:         RASS-RIPE
status:         ASSIGNED PA
mnt-by:         MNT-PIN
mnt-routes:     MNT-PIN
mnt-domains:    PIRIX-MNT
source:         RIPE # Filtered

person:         Mikhail Evdokimov
address:        PIRIX
address:        Obukhovskoy Oborony, 120-Z
address:        192012, St.Petersburg
address:        Russia
phone:          +7 812 3343610
fax-no:         +7 812 6002014
nic-hdl:        ME3174-RIPE
mnt-by:         RUNNET-MNT
source:         RIPE # Filtered

person:         Dmitry Rassohin
address:        194156, St.Petersburg, Russia
address:        Bolshoy Sampsonievskiy prospekt 106A, apt. 304
phone:          +7 931 2700021
nic-hdl:        RASS-RIPE
mnt-by:         RASS-MNT
source:         RIPE # Filtered

route:          37.139.40.0/21
descr:          PIRIXROUTE
origin:         AS56534
mnt-by:         MNT-PIN
source:         RIPE # Filtered


UPDATE: a slightly different version of the spam is doing the rounds today, with the fake senders being Allyson.Mays@birminghammail.co.uk and Troy.Short@birminghammail.co.uk (there seems to be nobody working for the Birmingham Mail with that name).

The attachment is in the format letter_549588.zip and letter_235708.zip and which unzips to a folder original_letter_234389_193.eml containing a malicious executable original_letter_234389_193.eml.exe which has a VirusTotal detection rate of 4/54.

The Malwr analysis shows that this reaches out to the following sites:

www.zag.com.ua
daisyblue.ru
37.139.47.117


This drops a further file called mss3.exe with an MD5 of 8e5ea3a1805df3aea28c76adb13b3d9e which is still pending analysis.



Tuesday 22 July 2014

IGPK (Integrated Cannabis Solutions Inc) pump-and-dump spam

There seems to be a low-volume pump-and-dump spam run promoting IGPK (Integrated Cannabis Solutions Inc), the second recent spam I've seen for a cannabis company after this one.

Date:      Mon, 21 Jul 2014 21:15:06 +0400 [07/21/14 13:15:06 EDT]
From:      carolinehopkinsd@arcusinvest.com
Subject:      Check out this company that investors buy

Dear Classified Investor,
If you have been watching to the news, I am sure you have
learned about this new and exciting gigantic business that
everyone is talking about, right in USA! We're talking about
medical marijuana and the colossal Dot Bong Boom currently
underway. INTEGRATED CANNABIS SOLUTIONS INC I G_P-K, offers
a secret, backdoor way to get some of the best potentially
lucrative marijuana investments in the world! Published by
the WSJ, legal marijuana could be the next big thing. This
legal marijuana company is, effortlessly, the utmost
possibly lucrative purchase in this domain right now. I
G_P-K +4% on Friday the 18th of July, seems is groomed
totally for a popular surge up the graphs that can bring
openly compensate us five hundred percent or more. Don't
wait, take 5 minutes and invest early this week, while I
G_P-K is still available for purchase before Wall Street
learns about it! 
IGPK has a turnover of about $2m but is haemorrhaging cash which is not a good sign, but it doesn't mean that the company is necessarily going to fold.

It looks like some sort of stock promotion started last month, but this is simply low-grade spam. However a look a the stock chart shows that the spam run has pushed up the price by 45% to $0.08.. but that is down from $0.74 in May so the price has certainly slumped.

The mail originates from 61.234.227.151 (Railcom, China) via a mailserver at 185.8.3.210 (GNC, Armenia). Despite the "arcusinvest.com" domain in the email there is no evidence that it actually comes from this domain (that belongs to Arcus Investment Ltd, a real UK investment company).

Unless you want to lose out, you should never buy stock promoted by spam as the price tends to collapse as soon as the promotion stops.. or even while the promotion is still going on!

Monday 21 July 2014

Something evil on 188.120.198.1 (IP4ISP / LuckyNet, Czech Republic)

Here another bunch of Cushion Redirect sites closely related to this attack a few weeks ago but this time hosted on 188.120.198.1 (IP4ISP / LuckyNet, Czech Republic). You can see the redirect in action in this URLquery report and VirusTotal has a clear indication of badness on this IP.

All the sites are hijacked subdomains of legitimate domains, a peculiar mix of pornography and Dora the Explorer. Domains in use are:

e-meskiesprawy24.com.pl
dora-explorer.co.uk
adultvideoz.net
alsancakescort.org
anadoluyakasiescort.asia


To give credit to the owners of dora-explorer.co.uk, they have spotted that something is wrong, although it looks like the nameservers of their webhost (eu1.downtownhost.com and eu2.downtownhost.com) are improperly secured.


A full list of all the subdomains I can find is here [pastebin] but I would recommend applying a temporary block to these domains until the webhost secures them, although the most effective way of securing your network is to permablock 188.120.198.1.

Recommended blocklist:
188.120.198.1
e-meskiesprawy24.com.pl
dora-explorer.co.uk
adultvideoz.net
alsancakescort.org
anadoluyakasiescort.asia

UPDATE: It definitely appears that downtownhost.com have not secured their nameservers as a few more customer sites are being abused in this way. It appears that the attackers are going through downtownhost.com's customers in alphabetical order. For example, the following subdomain are in use:

dfmgjne934eod8khquq1axg.elluse.com
280pfzhnb4usz3hajazvtlw.eaila.com
zefh96abfex1r32md0jdh7p.e-oman.me

Additional sites to block:
elluse.com
eaila.com
e-oman.me

UPDATE 2: it looks like downtownhost.com have fixed the problem. These recently-flagged domains can now be considered to be safe.

4-cheap.co.uk
aandelenblog.be
apteka-erekcja.pl
arcadehaven.co.uk
bewegwijzeringborden.nl
bitfrog.co.uk
carpediemcosmetics.de
cewh-cesf.ca
charlie-lola.co.uk
check-email.org
cialis25.pl
cialis25.pl
clashofclanshackdownload.com
deepfryershop.co.uk
designwonen.be
dora-explorer.co.uk
eaila.com
elluse.com
e-meskiesprawy24.com.pl
e-meskiesprawy24.pl
e-oman.me

Friday 18 July 2014

Something evil on 5.135.211.52 and 195.154.69.123

This is some sort of malware using insecure OpenX ad servers to spread. Oh wait, insecure is pretty much the default configuration for OpenX servers..

..anyway, I don't know quite what it is, but it's running on a bunch of hijacked GoDaddy subdomains and is triggering a generic Javascript detection on my gateway. Domains spotted in this cluster are:

fart.somerspointnjinsurance.com
farms.somerspointnjinsurance.com
farming.somerspointnjinsurance.com
farma.risleyhouse.net
farmer.risleyhouse.net
farmers.risleyhouse.net
par.ecofloridian.info
papers.ecofloridian.com
papa.trustedelderlyhomecare.net
paper.trustedelderlyhomecare.org
pap.trustedelderlyhomecare.info
fas.theinboxexpert.com
fashion.theinboxexpert.com

The two IPs in use both belong to OVH France, but 5.135.211.52 is suballocated to QHoster Ltd (Bulgaria) [VT] and 195.154.69.123 is suballocated to Iliad Entreprises (France) [VT]. This second IP has also been used to host "one two three" malware sites back in May.

Recommended blocklist:
5.135.211.52
195.154.69.123
somerspointnjinsurance.com
risleyhouse.net
ecofloridian.info
ecofloridian.com
trustedelderlyhomecare.net
trustedelderlyhomecare.org
trustedelderlyhomecare.info
theinboxexpert.com

Thursday 17 July 2014

"Notificación de transferencia de fondos a su favor" spam

This Spanish-language spam has a malicious Word document as an attachment.

From:     HSBC Transferencias [Mexico_contacto@hsbc.com.mx]
Reply-To:     respuesta@hsbc.com.mx
Date:     17 July 2014 11:01

¡BIENVENIDO A HSBC!

El motivo de este correo es informarle que el día de hoy recibió una transferencia SPEI la cual se encuentra retenida debido a anomalías en su cuenta. Para mas detalles sobre esta situación le adjuntamos un documento en formato Microsoft Word donde explicamos el motivo de la retención y los pasos a seguir.



Banco emisor: BBVA BANCOMER
Importe: $94,000.00
Fecha: 17/07/2014
Folio: 89413


Estatus: Retenida
Recomendamos seguir los pasos descritos en el documento adjunto en este correo.


Para cualquier duda o aclaración  nos ponemos a sus órdenes en contacto@hsbc.com.mx o si lo prefiere,  puede comunicarse a Banca por Internet en los siguientes teléfonos:
     México D.F. (55) 5721 1635
     Desde cualquier estado de la República al 01800 4722 638 LADA sin costo.

Con gusto le atenderemos

The attachment is essentially the same as the one mentioned here which tries to lure the victim into removing their Word security settings so that a malicious macro can run.

The VirusTotal detection rate is a pretty poor 4/54. You can see some of the text strings in the Malwr report which feature a reverse URL of exe.ss/pw/arc/lc.paip//:ptth which is reverse to try to download a file from http://piap.cl/cra/wp/ss.exe (currently 404ing). The VBA in the document can be found here [pastebin].

As mentioned before, this is a long-running campaign apparently targeting users in Mexico, and as yet I have not seen this in any language except Spanish.

Wednesday 16 July 2014

"You've received a new fax" / "You have a new Secure Message" spam

This pair of spam messages leads to a malicious ZIP file downloaded via goo.gl (and not Dropbox as the spam says)

From:     Fax [fax@victimdomain]
Date:     16 July 2014 16:12
Subject:     You've received a new fax

New fax at SCAN7905518 from EPSON by https://victimdomain
Scan date: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 23:12:29 +0800

Number of pages: 2
Resolution: 400x400 DPI

You can download your fax message at:

https://goo.gl/8AanL9

(Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by Dropbox, Inc.)

-------------

From:     NatWest [secure.message@natwest.com]
Date:     16 July 2014 14:47
Subject:     You have a new Secure Message

You have received a encrypted message from NatWest Customer Support

In order to view the attachment please open it using your email client ( Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, Lotus )

Please download your ecnrypted message at:

https://goo.gl/8AanL9


(Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by Dropbox, Inc.)


If you have concerns about the validity of this message, please contact the sender directly. For questions please contact the NatWest Bank Secure Email Help Desk at 0131 556 4612.
I have seen three goo.gl URLs leading to three different download locations, as follows

https://goo.gl/1dlcL3 leads to
http://webbedenterprisesinc.com/message/Document-6936124.zip

https://goo.gl/8AanL9 leads to
http://rollermodena.it/Document-2816409172.zip

https://goo.gl/pwgQID leads to
http://www.vetsaudeanimal.net/Document-9879091.zip

In all cases, the ZIP file contains a malicious .scr with the same name as the ZIP (e.g. Document-6936124.scr). The file is the same in all three locations and has a VirusTotal detection rate of exactly 0/54. The Malwr report shows that this then downloads components form the following locations (hosted by OVH France):
http://94.23.247.202/1607h/HOME/0/51Service%20Pack%203/0/
http://94.23.247.202/1607h/HOME/1/0/0/


An executable esoez.exe is then dropped onto the target system with a marginally better VT detection rate of 1/54. The Malwr report for that is inconclusive.

Recommended blocklist:
94.23.247.202
vetsaudeanimal.net
rollermodena.it
webbedenterprisesinc.com

Tuesday 15 July 2014

Scam? thejointventuregroup.com (The Joint Venture Group) and other domains

This slimy proposition plopped into my spamtrap:

From:     Lori Henderson [info@loriwiththejointventuregroup.com]
Date:     15 July 2014 02:11
Subject:     Attention Investors
Sailing list:     xkuqlvkqlvveull of 1541

Investment opportunities like the one I am about to share comes along once every twenty years. Companies that produce earnings of billions annually are not the norm. This proprietary product is that will do just that. We have already received letters of interest to purchase this unique product from:

Mercedes Benz

General Motors

Caterpillar

Pep Boys

The U.S. Army, just to name a few.

If you are an accredited investor and would like to own a portion of with an estimated gross volume in the billions, then reply to this email and you will receive the details. Please be advised, this is a limited.

Regards,

Haven Henderson

 info@loriwiththejointventuregroup.com

 To stop getting mails
The email originates from 76.182.212.168, an IP address in Arlington, Texas. The domain "loriwiththejointventuregroup.com" is registered with anonymous details. The same content is mirrored on several sites:

thejointventuregroup.com
loriwiththejointventuregroup.com
thomwiththejointventuregroup.com
walterwiththejointventuregroup.com
tiarrawiththejointventuregroup.com
marvawiththejointventuregroup.com


The site has been knocked together using a sitebuilding tool by a 12 year old (by the looks of it).


The site quotes a company name and address as follows:
The Joint Venture Group P.O. BOX 1063 CEDAR HILL TX 75106

..but I can find no verifiable proof about the existence of a firm of this name in Texas.

Perhaps a clue into the operation can be found on a page labelled "Consulting Position"

The Joint Venture Group is looking for self-motivated individuals who are experienced in marketing to project developers and business owners who need private funding.

    In addition to providing funding capital for project developers and business owners who cannot qualify for conventional bank financing, The Joint Venture Group also provides a safe investment opportunity to accredited investors. This private investment fund pays $2,500 in monthly commissions, for every client that is enrolled by the consultant into the fund. The commission percentage is based on a minimum investment of $1,000,000. Click here to learn more.

    If you are a motivated individual looking for a great opportunity to receive a consistent monthly income in the amount of $2,500  on every enrolled client, than fill out the application below and please name the consultant that referred you to this page. 
 


Let's have a look at that "handshake" picture more closely..


It says: "If you're not a part of the solution, there's good money to be made in prolonging the problem". Funny, yes. Something that a consulting firm would have on their site? Definitely not.

It could well be that Lori, Thom, Walter, Tiarra and Marva are real people who have fallen for this sham and the promise of easy riches.

So, it it a scam? My personal opinion that it is. "The Joint Venture" group offer easy money - loans for just about any project, a rate of return for investors that is unrealistic, and of course it is promoted via spam by a company that hides all its real contact details. It certainly looks scammy according to the duck test.

Perhaps a clue can be found on the "Procedures page".


Please be advise, there is a 100% REFUNDABLE deposit of $20K which is a Success Fee. The deposit will be returned when funding is arranged. The deposit is also refundable if The Joint Venture Group fails to arrange funding by the end of 365 days. Proof of funds are required on all funding submissions. There will be no exceptions made.
So, this is saying: you give us twenty thousand bucks and we'll sort out your finance. Honest. You can trust us. We have a domain name and everything.


The Joint Venture Group is comprised of pf private investors who will provide funding for a variety of commercial developments and business projects to those who do not qualify for traditional bank financing.  We also offer a safe investment fund to accredited investor which pays 12% annually, 1% each month. The minimum entry amount is $1M. The investment also provides funding for our clients that require funding. Our minimum funding amount is $1M with no maximum. You can review the details and funding procedures by clicking here.
Say after me.. one meelion dollars!


The Joint Venture Group claim to be a multibillion dollar outfit, but their web design (and spelling) is awful.


Well, OK I have seen the website for Berkshire Hathaway which is has nearly half a trillion dollars worth of assets but also has a website that looks like it was designed in 30 minutes in 1994. But at least Warren Buffett knows how to spell.

Nothing about The Joint Venture Group looks legitimate. I would give it a wide berth if I were you.

Monday 14 July 2014

"Important - Internal Only" spam

This spam comes with a malicious payload:

Date:      Mon, 14 Jul 2014 16:12:49 +0000 [12:12:49 EDT]
From:      Administrator [Administrator@victimdomain]
Subject:      Important - Internal Only

File Validity: 07/14/2014
Company : http://victimdomain
File Format: Office - Excel ,PDF
Name: Internal Only
Legal Copyright: © Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Original Filename: Internal Only.pdf

********** Confidentiality Notice **********.
This e-mail and any file(s) transmitted with it, is intended for the exclusive use by the
person(s) mentioned above as recipient(s).
This e-mail may contain confidential information and/or information protected by
intellectual property rights or other rights. If you
are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any
dissemination, distribution, copying, or action taken
in relation to the contents of and attachments to this e-mail is strictly prohibited and
may be unlawful. If you have received this
e-mail in error, please notify the sender and delete the original and any copies of this
e-mail and any printouts immediately from
your system and destroy all copies of it. 
Attached to the message is an archive file Internal Only - victimdomain which in turn contains a malicious executable Internal Only.scr which has a VirusTotal detection rate of 9/54 which indicates that this is a variant of Upatre. The Malwr analysis shows that it contacts the following URLs:

http://renovarweb.com/comprar/css/404.tar
http://vivatsaultppc.com/421w52q4ok9
http://vivatsaultppc.com/tv8m80f8d8d0


This drops a few files, including mkird.exe which has a VirusTotal detection rate of 6/54 (Malwr analysis here) and an encoded file 404[1].tar which only McAfee spots as being suspect (Upatre-Enc.b).

Blocking the following domains may give some protection:
renovarweb.com
vivatsaultppc.com


Spam from Institute of Project Management America (instituteofprojectmanagementamerica.org)

I wrote about the so-called Institute of Project Management America last month along with their principals Anthony Christopher Jones (aka Tony Jones) and Patchree Patchchrint (aka Patty Jones), who have been running what I personally consider to be fake seminars for the best part of a decade. Previous versions of this same outfit were called The Grant Institute and the North American Program Planning and Policy Academy [NAPPPA] (just Google 'em).

This spam is advertising a course in Seattle. In my opinion I would give this a very wide berth indeed.
From:     Institute of Project Management America
Date:     12 July 2014 10:48
Subject:     Project Management Masters Certification Program (August 5 - 8, 2014: Seattle, WA)


The Project Management Masters Certification Program will be offered August 5-8, 2014 in Seattle, Washington. Project management professionals, business and technology professionals, students, and educators are invited to register online at the Institute of Project Management America website.

August 5-8, 2014
Seattle Public Library

Seattle, Washington
 
The PMMC is designed for those seeking professional project management certification. It serves as both a thorough professional education and recognized certification. Those seeking additional credentials such as the PMP®/PgMP®, PMI-SP®, and PMI-RMP® will benefit from this dynamic and interactive work session, while those currently holding credentials will find the certification to be an enhancement as well as the most up to date advanced professional development.  

Project Management Masters Certification program provides 36 hours of project management education, meeting education requirements for both PMI's Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) ® and Project Management Professional (PMP) certifications. Additionally, the Master Certification provides 36 Professional Development Units (PDUs) for current holders of PMP®/PgMP®, PMI-SP®, and PMI-RMP® credentials.

The program meets the education requirement for all professional designations through the Project Management Institute and other professional agencies. Additionally, the program awards 3.6 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) upon request. 

Program Description

Our certificate program teaches technical and business professionals how to master the critical skills of project management techniques as part of their technical career development.

The skills developed in the Project Management Masters Certification program apply to large and small projects, product design and development efforts, construction projects, IT projects, software development, and any project with critical performance, time, and budget targets.  

Our approach to project management education offers proven, results-focused learning.

Courses are developed and facilitated by professional subject experts with extensive industrial experience. Course emphasis is on providing practical skills and tools supported by relevant case examples.

Tuition

Tuition for the four-day Project Management Masters Certification program is $995.00

Program Schedule and Content
1. Project Initiation, Costing, and Selection, Day 1
2. Project Organization and Leadership, Day 2 
3. Detailed Project Planning, Day 2 and 3 
4. Project Monitoring and Control, Day 3 and 4 
5. Project Risk Management, Day 4  

Benefits
·   A PMMC certificate of accomplishment is awarded upon completion of the four day program of five courses. Completion letters are given for each course.
·   Our instructors have extensive industrial experience. They focus on providing you with practical skills and tools using relevant case examples.
·   Each class is highly focused and promotes maximum interaction.
·   You can network with other project management professionals from a variety of industries.
·   Earn Professional Development Units (PDUs) for maintenance of certification under the PMI Continuing Certification Requirements Program.
·    Applicants for PMI's Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)® and Project Management Professional (PMP) certifications will have met all education requirements for eligibility.

Registration

Participants may reserve a seat online at the Institute of Project Management America website, by calling the Program Office toll-free at (888) 859-5659, or by sending their name and contact information via email to the Program Registrar .

Upon receiving your registration, a confirmation email is sent to registrants that includes session site information, travel information, program description, and details on how to confirm attendance and make payment arrangements.
 
Click Here to be removed from this mailing list.
The email originated from a Verizon IP 173.55.195.165 which is in Los Angeles. Previous research has shown that Jones and Patchrint are strongly associated with LA in general and the Hacienda Heights area in particular. The SMTP server was at 167.160.94.170 (Corey Manshack, Texas). The spamvertised site is instituteofprojectmanagementamerica.org (as discussed here)

I advise you to research the so-called Institute of Project Management America (along with The Grant Institute and the North American Program Planning and Policy Academy [NAPPPA) yourself. In particular, I would personally recommend not booking a course with them, and not accepting a job offer as a trainer.

Scam: "CNnet Dispute Solutions Ltd" cn-network.com / cn-network.org

This email from a Chinese domain registrar styling itself as "CNnet Dispute Solutions Ltd" is a scam.

From:     james@cn-network.org
Date:     14 July 2014 11:12
Subject:     About Internet Trademark Issue: [redacted]


Dear Manager,

(If you are not the person who is in charge of this, please forward this to your CEO,Thanks)

We are a organization specializing in trademark consulting and domain name registration services in China. We just received an application sent from "HaiTon Importing Co., Ltd" on 13/07/2014, requesting for applying the "[redacted]" as the Internet Brand and some Chinese domains such as .cn/.com.cn/.hk/.asia ect... for their business running. Though our preliminary review and verification, we found that this keyword is currently being used by your company and is applied as your domain name. In order to avoid any potential risks in terms of trademark dispute and impact on your market businesses in China and Asia in future, we need to confirm with you whether "HaiTon Importing Co., Ltd" is your own subsidiary or partner.

Will your businesses in China and Asia be impacted potentially if they apply for this trademark? And will you agree this company to apply for this trademark? Please contact us immediately within 10 working days, otherwise, you will be deemed as waived by default.

Please contact us in time in order that we can handle this issue better.


Best Regards,

James Tan

Auditing Department.

Registration Department Manager
4/F,No.9 XingHui West Street,

JinNiu ChenDu, China

Office: +86 2887662861

Fax: +86 2887783286

Web: http://www.cn-network.com



Please consider the environment before you print this e-mail.
Don't worry, this is a scam. There is no such company as "HaiTon Importing Co". Nobody is trying to register these worthless domains, there is really nothing to worry about. I've explained it all in this video.

They have a website at cn-network.com and are soliciting replies to cn-network.org. Registration details are as follows:

Registry Registrant ID:
Registrant Name: Wang XiaoGang
Registrant Organization: Cheng Du Chuang Ning Wang Luo Ke Ji You Xian Gong Si
Registrant Address: No. 69  JinFangYuanDong Road  ChengDuJinNiu District
Registrant City: ChengDuShi
Registrant Province/state: SC
Registrant Country: CN
Registrant Postal Code: 610000
Registrant Phone: +86.2887783286
Registrant Phone EXT: +86.2887783286
Registrant Fax: +86.2887783286
Registrant Fax EXT: +86.2887783286
Registrant Email: 253885777@qq.com
Registrant Email EXT: 253885777@qq.com
Registry Admin ID: 42771277


I can find the following domains that use the same contact details:

cn-nic.org
cn-network.org
cn-network.com
cn-network.net
cnnetcor.com
cnnetpro.com


This scam has been going around for years, and it is just being randomly spammed out and you should simply ignore it.

Video: Chinese Domain Scams


Thursday 10 July 2014

"TT PAYMENT COPY" spam

We've seen spam like this before. It comes with a malicious attachment.

Date:      Thu, 10 Jul 2014 00:09:28 -0700 [03:09:28 EDT]
From:      "PGS Global Express Co, Ltd." [pgsglobal1960@gmail.com]
Subject:      Re TT PAYMENT COPY

ATTN:

Good day sir,here is the copy of the transfer slip ,kindly find the attach copy and please check with your bank to confirm the receipt of the payment and do the needful by dispatching the material as early as possible.

We hope you will do the needful and let us know the dispatch details.

(purchase) Manager.
                   ------sent from my iphone5s-------
 It comes with an attachment TT PAYMENT COPY.ZIP containing the malicious executable TT PAYMENT COPY.exe which has a VirusTotal detection rate of 19/54. According to Malwr this appears to be a self-extractive archive file which then drops (inter alia) a file iyKwmsYRtDlN.com which has a very low detection rate of 1/52. It isn't clear what this file does according to the report.

"Estado de Cuenta Datallado en Línea (Statement Datallado Online)" spam contains a Macro virus

This Spanish-language spam comes with a Word document containing a Macro virus.

From:     Banco Santander [altacuentas_cash@santander.com.mx]
Reply-to:     noreply@santander.com.mx
Date:     10 July 2014 09:52
Subject:     Estado de Cuenta Datallado en Línea


Estimado Cliente:

Por este medio le enviamos el estado de su cuenta del día 08/Jul/2014.
Le recomendamos descargarlo y así mantener un registro de sus activos.

El estado de cuenta se encuentra adjunto en este correo en formato Microsoft Word.

Para cualquier duda o aclaración puede comunicarse a Súper Línea Empresarial.

Atentamente,
BANCO SANTANDER.

******************PRIVACIDAD DE ESTE MENSAJE**********************
Este mensaje esta dirigido exclusivamente a las personas que tienen las direcciones de correo electronico especificadas en los destinatarios dentro de su encabezado. Si por error usted ha recibido este mensaje, por ningun motivo debe revelar su contenido, copiarlo, distribuirlo o utilizarlo. Le solicitamos por favor elimine dicho mensaje junto con cualquier documento adjunto que pudiera contener. Los derechos de privacidad y confidencialidad de la informacion en este mensaje no deben perderse por el hecho de haberse trasmitido erroneamente o por causas de interferencias en el funcionamiento de los sistemas de correo y canales de comunicacion. Toda opinion que se expresa en este mensaje pertenece a la persona remitente por lo que no debe entenderse necesariamente como una opinion del Grupo Financiero Santander y/o de las entidades que lo integran, a menos que el remitente este autorizado para hacerlo o expresamente lo diga en el mismo mensaje. En consideracion a que los mensajes enviados de manera electronica pueden ser interceptados y manipulados, el Grupo Financiero Santander y las entidades que lo integran no se hacen responsables si los mensajes llegan con demora, incompletos, eliminados o con algun programa malicioso denominado como virus informatico. Este mensaje no debe interpretarse, por ningun motivo como una oferta de venta o de compra de valores ni de instrumentos financieros relacionados. Los acentos en la leyenda de confidencialidad se han suprimido para una mejor lectura
This translates roughly as:
I hereby send you the status of your account on 08/Jul/2014.
We recommend you download and keep track of your assets.

The statement is attached to this email in Microsoft Word format.

For any question you can contact Super Business Line.

Best regards,
BANCO SANTANDER. 
Attached is a file ESTADOCUENTA_2457.doc which contains a Word Macro virus. However, because most people's settings would stop a Macro virus running then it actually contains detailed instructions on how to remove your security settings.


The first page reads:
El contenido no puede ser mostrado.
Para poder ver el contenido de este documento debe habilitar los Macros de Microsoft Word, luego cerrar y abrir el documento.

Pruebe lo siguiente:
Habilite los Macros y luego vuelva a abrir el documento.
En este documento podrá encontrar una guía proporcionada por www.santander.com para poder habilitar los macros en su Microsoft Word.

Grupo Financiero Santander México - 2014
which roughly translates to:
The content can not be shown.
To view the content of this document should enable macros Microsoft Word, then close and reopen the document.

Try the following:
Enable Macros and then reopen the document.
In this document you will find a guide provided by www.santander.com to enable macros in your Microsoft Word.

Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico - 2014

There then follows several pages with screenshots on how to disable the security in Word and Excel.. doing which of course is a bad idea. Reloading the document will then execute the Macro virus. I have defanged the document and converted it to a PDF file here. A copy of the VBA code is here (thanks to @Techhelplistcom).


The VirusTotal analysis shows just 1/54 virus scanners detect it. The Malwr analysis gives some clues as to what is going on in the string dump, especially the reference to baulretro.cl/tienda/cache/wp/ss.exe (186.64.120.59 / Zam Ltda, Chile) which appears to be a malicious binary (at the moment the file is 404ing, but it was working recently).

The properties of the Word document don't give much of a clue:



Authors are "OFEyDV", last saved by "clein" which matches to a few other recent malicious Spanish-language documents [1] [2] [3] [4]. The creation date indicates that perhaps this started off life as a genuine document and has been adapted for evil purposes.

Originating IP for the spam is 124.42.127.221 (Langfang University, China) via 199.192.145.152 (web17.gohost.com).

It's a lot of hard work to get your computer infected, but it does also look quite convincing. Word Macros are very rarely used by anything and you should definitely not fiddle with them if you don't need to.

Wednesday 9 July 2014

NatWest fails when it comes to basic phishing precautions - report

It's late, so I'll just copy-and-paste this release about a rather stupid failure by NatWest to set an SPF record for one of their critical domains..

NatWest Fail To Adequately Protect Customers Online From Increasingly Sophisticated Cyber Crime Threats 

London UK, Wednesday 9th July 2014 – A leading email security specialist organisation has identified a simple yet important flaw in online banking systems which could be exposing unknowing customers to cyber-orientated threats.

Graeme Batsman, director of the London based IT and email security company 'Atbash', has identified a vulnerability in the system used by NatWest – highlighting a susceptibility to phishing emails (spoofed) and malware.

The flaw identified in the current email security set up employed by NatWest bank has been found to decrease the possibility of phishing emails being identified and filtered out safely, thus protecting online customers.

Mr Batsman commented “Being a security techy, I spent time pulling software, spoofed emails or viruses apart to see exactly how they work and where the possible flaws can be seen. During early July I was handed a sample of an email from NatWest which slipped past the security system. After inspecting the problem and testing the vulnerability I identified that the problem was a missing SPF record.”
A 'Sender Policy Framework' (known as an SPF) is a free, open source method of identifying and capturing dangerous and compromised emails by comparing records saved online against the actual email received. A full configuration to close the vulnerability would have taken around 30 minutes and costs nothing to implement.
Graeme Batsman continued “To put it simply NatWest’s email servers are based within the United Kingdom, so if someone was sending an email from New Zealand pretending to be NatWest, it should get blocked. When an email is sent there is a simple check done in the background to see where the email should come from (in this case UK) and where is actually comes from (in this case New Zealand), If the 2 do not tie up then email servers will determine the email to be fake and it will be blocked.”

Unlike other cyber threats facing large corporations with an obligation to protect customer data, this particular vulnerability in the NatWest system would have cost nothing to address. By integrating an SPF record on the system, the bank would have increased the chance of email spam filters detecting that the email is a fake and as a result, offering better protection for their customers.
Whilst NatWest.com does have SPF records set up, the critical domain nwolb.com which is used for online banking login does not. This leads to cyber criminals being particularly attracted to the nwolb.com domain.

This is obviously a major concern to NatWest online banking customers, however other major banks such as Metro Bank, Barclays, Santander and Lloyds already have SPF records setup for their domains which relate to online banking login paths.
Knowing banks it would have taken a lot more than 30 minutes to fix this and millions of pounds of money. Oh yes.. taxpayer's money in the case of NatWest. But it certainly does look like a basic security failure that makes me glad that I bank elsewhere..