Mal/Phish-A

Posted: November 7, 2011

Threat Metric

The Threat Meter is a malware assessment that SpywareRemove.com's research team is able to give every identifiable malware threat. Our Threat Meter includes several criteria based off of specific malware threats to value their severity, reach and volume. The Threat Meter is able to give you a numerical breakdown of each threat's initial Threat Level, Detection Count, Volume Count, Trend Path and Percentage Impact. The overall ranking of each threat in the Threat Meter is a basic breakdown of how all threats are ranked within our own extensive malware database. The scoring for each specific malware threat can be easily compared to other emerging threats to draw a contrast in its particular severity. The Threat Meter is a useful tool in the endeavor of seeking a solution to remove a threat or pursue additional analytical research for all types of computer users.

The following fields listed on the Threat Meter containing a specific value, are explained in detail below:

Threat Level: The threat level scale goes from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest level of severity and 1 is the lowest level of severity. Each specific level is relative to the threat's consistent assessed behaviors collected from SpyHunter's risk assessment model.

Detection Count: The collective number of confirmed and suspected cases of a particular malware threat. The detection count is calculated from infected PCs retrieved from diagnostic and scan log reports generated by SpyHunter.

Volume Count: Similar to the detection count, the Volume Count is specifically based on the number of confirmed and suspected threats infecting systems on a daily basis. High volume counts usually represent a popular threat but may or may not have infected a large number of systems. High detection count threats could lay dormant and have a low volume count. Criteria for Volume Count is relative to a daily detection count.

Trend Path: The Trend Path, utilizing an up arrow, down arrow or equal symbol, represents the level of recent movement of a particular threat. Up arrows represent an increase, down arrows represent a decline and the equal symbol represent no change to a threat's recent movement.

% Impact (Last 7 Days): This demonstrates a 7-day period change in the frequency of a malware threat infecting PCs. The percentage impact correlates directly to the current Trend Path to determine a rise or decline in the percentage.

Threat Level:	8/10
Infected PCs:	12

First Seen:	November 7, 2011
Last Seen:	November 19, 2021
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

Mal/Phish-A is a phishing web page that poses as PayPal in order to steal personal information from anyone who visits Mal/Phish-A. Although stumbling over Mal/Phish-A by accident is unlikely, SpywareRemove.com malware analysts have noted that links to Mal/Phish-A are distributed as file attachments in spam e-mail. Since this e-mail appears to be from PayPal as well and pretends that an account-locking emergency requires you to access this attachment, exposure to Mal/Phish-A can easily occur without realizing it. If you've given away your information in a Mal/Phish-A attack, you should contact PayPal and take appropriate measures to protect your account and other personal information. However, as long as you avoid the Mal/Phish-A website and delete its e-mail messages, Mal/Phish-A is incapable of harming your PC.

The E-mail That Lets Mal/Phish-A Dress Itself Up Like a Real Company

Mal/Phish-A e-mail messages pretend to be sent by PayPal (an online financial transaction and holding company), but there are minor discrepancies that can be noted to tell it apart from a real PayPal message. SpywareRemove.com malware experts advise you to look for signs like these:

Although the content of the message is about a locked PayPal account, Mal/Phish-A spam can be sent to e-mail accounts that aren't linked to real PayPal accounts.
Mal/Phish-A spam will also request that you open a file attachment; this behavior isn't considered reputable by any legitimate company, including PayPal.
If you're familiar with PayPal's actual e-mail address, you'll notice that the Mal/Phish-A message's e-mail address doesn't match up, regardless of how hard Mal/Phish-A tries to obscure that fact.
Finally, you can note the presence of the following message below the 'Account Review Team' subject line:
[Please take a minute to read this urgent notification sent by our Account Review Team.]

As of the [current date], our security system has blocked unusual changes to a credit card linked to your account.

An intrusion into your account has been detected which shows that someone tried to access your PayPal account without your permission. We have limited access to your account due to this problem. Moreover, we have sent you an attachment which contains all the necessary steps in order to restore your account access. Please download and open it in your browser.

Thanks for your attention. Please do understand that this is a security measure taken with intention to protect you and your account. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Sincerely,
PayPal Account Review Team

What Mal/Phish-A Really Wants from You

Although Mal/Phish-A pretends to offer protection against unauthorized PayPal transactions, Mal/Phish-A's real goal is to steal private information, including your Social Security number, phone number and street address. If you click on the proffered file attachment, you'll be sent to the Mal/Phish-A website, which mimics a PayPal form in most visible ways. However, entering this data only sends it straight to criminals who will use it to break into your account and commit other crimes with your identity.

If you've been in contact with a Mal/Phish-A website, SpywareRemove.com malware researchers encourage you to scan your entire PC to make sure that the site hasn't injected a Trojan or other PC threat while you were visiting Mal/Phish-A. Mal/Phish-A is also known by the following aliases, depending on the anti-malware program that detects Mal/Phish-A: Trojan:JS/Cardst, PHISH/CartasiFraud and PHISH/HSBC.

Mal/Phish-A spam attacks are specific to Windows and, as far as SpywareRemove.com malware researchers can determine, unable to harm non-Windows computers. For those who prefer Windows, in the aftermath of a Mal/Phish-A attack, changing your PayPal passwords and taking other steps to re-secure your account and identity should be considered your foremost priority.

Mal/Phish-A

Threat Metric

The E-mail That Lets Mal/Phish-A Dress Itself Up Like a Real Company

What Mal/Phish-A Really Wants from You

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