The email message below: "Thank you for your payment," is a fake and has a virus or Trojan horse attached to it that will infect your Windows computer if you open it. The message was not sent by NYC Department of Finance, but by cyber-criminals, who designed it to trick the recipients into opening the malicious attachment by claiming that their credit cards were charged $7900.00 by the NYC Department of Finance and they can open the malicious attachment to view their credit card statement, which will show an entry from Parking Fines NYCGOV.
Again, the email message is a fake and the attachment is not a credit card statement, but a virus or Trojan horse that will infect a computer if the computer user attempts to open it.
The Fake and Virus NYC Department of Finance IRS Email Message
From: nycserv @finance.nyc .gov
Subject: Thank you for your payment
Attachment: attachment.zip
This is confirmation that your payment on Wed, 18 Feb 2015 16:31:02 +0000 for USD 7900.00 has been accepted by the NYC Department of Finance. Your Credit Card statement will show an entry from Parking Fines NYCGOV. Please read the attachment and save it in case you have any questions about the items that you have paid.
Name: sol chaimovits
Payment Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2015 16:31:02 +0000
Receipt Number: WWW81733157
Payment Amount: USD 7900.00
Credit Card: Visa
Account ending in: 3501
Your payment was for the following items:
Agency Item
Amount
PVO 1160025162
USD 3000.00
PVO 7247746580
USD 4500.00
DOF Convenience Fee
USD 400.00
Thank you for using New York City's website to process your payment. Please do not reply to this email. You may contact us by visiting
http://nycserv.nyc .gov/NYCServWeb/ContactUs.html
if you have questions or need further assistance.
The attachment "attachment.zip", contains the malicious file "attachment.exe".
If the malicious file is open, the recipients' computers will get infected with a virus or Trojan horse.
Once the recipients' computers have become infected with this malicious Trojan horse, the cybercriminals behind this email message will be able to access and take control of their computers remotely from anywhere around the world. They may spy on them, use your computer to commit cybercrimes, or steal their personal and financial information.
Now, if you have already opened anyone of these malicious attachments, please do a full scan of your computer with the antivirus software installed on it. The name of the attachment may change, so be careful when opening email attachments.
If you don’t have antivirus software installed on your computer, please click here for a list of free antivirus software.
Never open an attachment that has a name ending with “.exe”, because these are computer programs that can infect your computer with a virus or some other malware.
Click here for a list of email attachments you should never open, regardless of where they came from.
For a list of other virus email messages, please click here.