Hotel credit card wrong transaction email malware attack

Be on your guard! Emails claiming to be from a hotel about a wrong transaction on your credit card are being spammed worldwide – with the intention of infecting your computer with a malware.

Here’s a typical example. In this case it claims to come from the booking department of the Hotel Swissotel in Chicago:

Hotel Swissotel Chicago made wrong transaction

Dear client!

We are sorry to inform you that on July 26th, 2011 Hotel transaction debiting from your account for an overall amount of $1857.
This partner hotel was divested accreditation in Booking Company with reference of noncompliance of the service contract.
Please see the attached form. You need to fill it in and contact your bank for the return of funds.
In the attachment you will find expense sheet with the sum of wrong transaction writing-down.
Company just mediates and bears no responsibility for any money transactions made by…

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.