MALWARE – ‘You Have Received a 9 Page Fax’ Email

According to this email, you have received a 9-page fax which you can view by opening an attached Microsoft Word document.

The email claims to be from the online fax service eFax. It includes the date the fax was supposedly sent along with a reference number and caller ID.

However, eFax did not send the email and the attachment does not contain a fax document.

Instead, the email is a criminal ruse designed to trick you into installing malware.

If you attempt to open the attached Word file, you will be prompted to enable content, ostensibly so that the “fax” can be properly displayed. If you follow the instructions, a malicious macro will run in the background. The macro can download and install malware on your computer.

Toggle to read more about macros

For those that may not be aware, a macro is a set of commands and instructions that can be collected as a single command in order to quickly and automatically accomplish a task.

Complex macros can be created using VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) and can be very helpful in some workflows.

But malicious VBA macros can also be created and distributed. In years gone by, macro viruses were common computer security threats. But, for the last several years, they have been much less significant due to the fact that later versions of Microsoft Office disabled macros by default and implemented other security measures.

However, criminals have apparently realized that many computer users will have forgotten about or have no knowledge of macro threats. Thus, malicious macros are again being used to spread malware.

In modern incarnations of the threat, criminals do not try to subvert in-built security systems but use simple social engineering techniques to get users to allow the macros to run. The criminals rely on the curiosity of recipients who may proceed without due caution in the hope of finally viewing the promised document content.

Unless you have a compelling reason, you would be best to leave macros disabled by default. And do not believe any message that claims that you must enable macros to view or interact with Microsoft Office documents.

Details in these malware emails may vary. Dates, reference numbers and the number of supposed fax pages may vary in different versions.

Some versions may attempt to trick you into clicking a link to download the malware rather than opening an attached file.

Online fax services do notify people about incoming faxes via email. For this reason, criminals often send emails pretending to be from fax services.

If you receive an unexpected fax notification email, do not open any attachments or click any links that it contains. Instead, log in to the online fax service account by entering the account address into your browser’s address bar. If you really did receive a fax, you should be able to safely access and view it via the service’s website.

An example of the malware email

Fax Message [Caller-ID:32817735]You have received a 9 page fax at October 03 2018.

*The Reference number for this fax is [eFAX-537230603]

View attached fax using your any.doc reader.

Please see attached file if you have any questions regarding this message or your service.

Thank you for using the eFax service!