DVSA Receipt Malware Email
The original site is no longer online; links go to the Internet Archive copy.
The claim
Subject: DVSA RECEIPT
Good afternoon
Please find attached your receipt, sent as requested.
Kind regards
(See attached file)
Fixed Penalty Office Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency | The Ellipse, Padley Road, Swansea,
SA1 8AN
Phone: 0300 123 9000
Find out more about government services at www.gov.uk/dvsa
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. Any views or opinions presented may be those of the originator and do not necessarily represent those of DVSA.
If you were not the intended recipient, you have received this email and any attached files in error; in which case any storage, use, dissemination, forwarding, printing, or copying of this email or its attachments is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error please destroy all copies and notify the sender
[and postmaster@dvsa.gsi.gov.uk ] by return email.
DVSA’s computer systems may be monitored and communications carried on them recorded, to secure the effective operation of the system and for other lawful purposes.
Nothing in this email amounts to a contractual or other legal commitment on the part of DVSA unless confirmed by a communication signed on behalf of the Secretary of State.
It should be noted that although DVSA makes every effort to ensure that all emails and attachments sent by it are checked for known viruses before transmission, it does not warrant that they are free from viruses or other defects and accepts no liability for any losses resulting from infected email transmission.
Visit www.gov.uk/dvsa for information about the Driver Vehicle and Standards Agency.
The original of this email was scanned for viruses by the Government Secure Intranet virus scanning service supplied by Vodafone in partnership with Symantec. (CCTM Certificate Number 2009/09/0052.) This email has been certified virus free.
Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or recorded for legal purposes.
Email includes an attached file named: Fixed Penalty Receipt.docm
What the fact-checkers found
This email, which purports to be from the Fixed Penalty Office at the UK’s Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), claims that your DVSA receipt is included in an attached Microsoft Word document. The email implies that you previously requested that the DVSA send you this receipt.
The email includes an address, phone number, and website link for the DVSA and tacks on the type of legal and security statement that you might expect to see on a legitimate government message.
However, the email is not from the DVSA and the attached Word document does not contain a penalty receipt. If you attempt to open the Word document, you will be prompted to enable macros, supposedly so that the ‘receipt’ can be securely displayed. However, if you do enable macros as requested, the malicious macro that subsequently runs will download and install further malware components.
The DVSA has published a warning about this attack, which notes:
DVSA is aware that some members of the public have had emails claiming to be from the DVSA Fixed Penalty Office. The emails contain an attachment to a ‘fixed penalty receipt’.
DVSA never sends fixed penalty notices to customers by email.
If you receive one of these emails, do not open any attachments or click any links that it contains. Unless you have a good knowledge of macros and have a specific reason for using them, it is best to leave them disabled in Microsoft Office.
If you are unfamiliar with macros and their potential dangers, please refer to this other Hoax-Slayer article, which provides more information about the topic.
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