DHL Delivery Services Abused in New E-mail Scam

The Internet security firm Sophos has detected a fresh e-mail scam that abuses DHL. The e-mails used in this scam campaign are fake notifications from DHL Delivery Services, informing worldwide potential victims that due to some error in shipping address, the delivery of their parcels could not be done.

The fake e-mail, with the subject line "Please attention!", further asks the recipient to personally collect their parcel at their post office.

An attachment label.zip that comes along with the e-mail, which supposedly should contain the shipping label, is what that causes infection. The message says that the printed copy of the label is required to obtain the parcel personally.

But as soon as this attachment is opened, the PC of the recipient gets attacked by malware, which is identified as Troj/FakeAV-BEG by Sophos.

As explained by the security experts, the Trojan detected by the firm is especially created for the Windows systems. It is able to automatically run and communicate with a remote server through HTTP.

According to Sophos security researcher, Graham Cluley, despite the use of some unusual spelling in the e-mail, unwary users might fall victim and open the malicious attachment, as per Sophos researcher Graham Cluley's blog posted on April 21, 2010. The blog further stated that the firm is witnessing several reports of this attack worldwide.

In fact, it is not the first time cybercriminals abused DHL to attack innocent users. Earlier, in March 2009, a similar fake e-mail from DHL was detected. That e-mail also contained an attachment that was actually backdoor Trojan Troj/Bckdr-QSL.

Security experts, thus, advised users to exercise caution and avoid downloading files that intend to infect computer. It would be best to delete these e-mails purporting from DHL Delivery Services even before opening them.

In case users are still in doubt, they can straightaway contact DHL Delivery Services. Most importantly, they should use updated anti-spam filters and good anti-virus software.

Related article: Dell Cautions About malware Infecting Its Motherboards

» SPAMfighter News - 5/4/2010