Fake and Virus Federal Trade Commission Email - "You have one New Consumer Complaint"
The email message below with the subject: "You have one New Consumer Complain," is a fake and is malicious. The email was not sent by the Federal Trade Commission. The fake email has a link, if clicked, will attempt to download a zip or compressed file that contains a virus, Trojan horse or other malware that will infect the recipients' computers.
The Fake and Virus Email Message
Subject: You have one new consumer complaint
CONSUMER COMPLAINT NOTIFICATION This notification has been automatically sent to you because we have received a consumer complaint, claiming that your company is violating the CCPA (Consumer Credit Protection Act).
According to our policy, we have initiated a formal investigation before taking legal action.
You can download the document containing the complaint and the plaintiff contact information, from : [Link Removed]
Note that Adobe Reader must be installed on your computer.
Please take a moment to review the bolded section in the complaint, regarding the CCPA violation.
The link in the message will download the following malicious file: "pdf_complaint.zip", if open, will infect the recipients' computers. Note: the malicious file name may change.
The cybercriminals behind the malicious email message aim is to trick the curious recipients into opening the malicious file, which will infect their computers with a virus or Trojan horse.
Once their computers have become infected with a Trojan horse or some other malware, 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 their computesr to commit cyber-crimes, or steal their personal and financial information.
Now, if you have already clicked on the link, downloaded and open the malicious file, please do a full scan of your computer with the antivirus software installed on it.
If you don’t have antivirus software installed on your computer, please click here for a list of free antivirus software.
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.
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Note: Some of the information in samples on this website may have been impersonated or spoofed.