Amazon shipping update email spreads malware attack in time for Christmas

With Christmas just around the corner, plenty of people will be buying last minute presents from online stores like Amazon. As you buy presents for loved ones online, you’re always slightly nervous if the gift is going to arrive on time.

And that’s just what malicious hackers are preying on today.

Researchers at SophosLabs have intercepted a malware campaign that has been spammed out, pretending to be a notice from Amazon.com.

The emails, whose headers are forged to pretend to come from [email protected], have the following characteristics:

Subject: Shipping update for your Amazon.com order
Message text: Shipping update for your Amazon.com order [number] Attached file: Shipping documents.zip

Whatever you do, however, don’t open the attached ZIP file as it contains malware. Sophos detects it as W32/AutoRun-BHY and the ZIP file as Troj/BredoZp-BD.

Remember that…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the cybersecurity industry, having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Bluesky, or drop him an email.