COVID-19 Virus Emails: Be Careful When Opening Attachments

Online users who have received emails regarding COVID-19 asking them to open an attachment are asked to be careful. This is because cybercriminals are using emails with malicious attachments to trick recipients into infecting their computers with malware. Below is a malicious email sent by cybercriminals who are attempting to trick their potential victims into opening the malicious attachment(Payment Authorization form_pdf.iso) by claiming it is a payment authorization.

A Malicious COVID-19 Email

Payment Authorization Copy
Mon 4/6/2020 1:17 AM
From: "Yap Meng Hong (bdb) "
To: admin@enterprise-networks.pk
Cc: ahmed-usmani@commnet-systems.com
Attachment: Payment Authorization form_pdf.iso (1,216 KB)
Dear Sir,
Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 Worldwide, our company is shutting down temporarily, so we want to settle all payments.
Kindly find attached payment authorization to our bank for payment processing and confirm if the last bank account is correct.
Last week we received a different bank account that is different from the previous one we have in our record.
Awaiting your confirmation so we can proceed accordingly.
S. Prem Kumar
Account Department
VIZAG
Contact : 9486726100

To protect yourself, never open email attachments with the following extensions or names ending with: