“Cash Settlement Awarded” — Avoid Email Scam

“Cash Settlement Awarded” — Avoid Email Scam
Cash settlement awarded, email spam, Spam, phishing
Written by Robert Bailey

The Cash Settlement Awarded email is an unwanted email spam you can see in your mailbox. These emails consist of false statements about a reward resulting in a lawsuit regarding massive identity theft. The message says that you can receive a bit of the overall sum charged from cyber criminals. To receive the sum, the victim should send their personal information to the specified address. In this article, I will explain why it is a scam, and how should you act upon receiving one.

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What is the Cash Settlement Awarded virus?

The name that was assigned to this scam is not real. West Chester Magistrates’ Court, specified as a place where the court case took place, does not exist. Crooks who spread this spam just took an officially-looking name to lull the vigilance. Moreover, clerical language of the message body makes people believe it is real. And at the moment when the user receives this message, he/she will not even think that this is a fraud1. The possibility that a user will click the link or open the file attached to this message is very high.

Cash Settlement Awarded

Cash Settlement Awarded scam

Most people became eager to get money as someone promised them to pay. This case is not an exclusion – exactly, hackers rely that it isn’t. As they are aiming at gathering personal data of their victims, the key trick is to convince you to give it out. As practise shows, money is the best excuse to ask about your personal information. However, contacting scammers back delivers another problem – they mark your mailbox as active. Since email databases are circulating between different groups of criminals, they all will start spamming you.

Cash Settlement Awarded to XXXXXXX
We regret to inform you that you have been a victim of identity theft. Your identity and consumer credit files were compromised during a data breach where millions of user profiles were exposed to hackers and used in an identity theft scheme now uncovered by federal authorities and Interpol. Steps have since been taken to mitigate the issue.
The offenders have been prosecuted and ordered to pay a substantial settlement in which you are eligible to receive a cash portion of. You are eligible for reimbursements of false acquisitions, compensation for potential impact on your credit, and any additional claims you may make.
To request more information about the notification subject, simply reply to this notification with your Notification ID: xxxxxxx” or contact the Clerk’s Office by email at [email protected].
This is a Confidential Notification from the West Chester Magistrates’ Court, Any review, use, dissemination, disclosure or distribution by persons other than XXXXXXX is prohibited and is unlawful. DO NOT SHARE
West Chester Magistrates’ Court, 24 Grosvenor St, West Chester, United Kingdom
If you have questions or comments email us: [email protected]

How dangerous the Cash Settlement Awarded virus is?

Personal information may be exceptionally valuable, depending on its type and context. Most commonly for scams like the Cash Settlement Awarded, collected information is then sold to a third party on the Darknet. Depending on the group of criminals who commit the mailing, they can ask for more common data, like full name, address, phone number, or more specific things, like SSN or bank card information. This way or another, the data will end up in the hands of other fraudsters. And it is quite hard to predict how exactly it will be used.

Here is a short description of Cash Settlement Awarded virus:

Cash Settlement Awarded is not the only example of email scams that may happen. Aside from having different headers, they can aim for another data type or even malware spreading. The latter became exceptionally relevant over the last couple of years. Hackers embed malicious links and files in the messages and lure users to open them. Since sometimes phishing emails may look pretty convincing, it is better to follow all the preventive measures.

Can I avoid this scam?

Things are not so hopeless for the Cash Settlement Awarded virus. It is quite easy to find the difference between a phishing message and a genuine one. Look at a sender’s address – it is the first and the most bright sign of a scam. Hackers cannot use genuine emails of organisations unless they make them up. For that reason, they will try to make the address as close as possible to the real one. Yet more often they just take a random account and use it paying no attention if it is similar or not. Seeing a message from Amazon, that was sent from “[email protected]” is a red flag.

 Cash Settlement Awarded email scam

The example of dubious email address on another online spamming campaign

Another often sign of a phishing letter hides in the message body. Despite being written in a proper cleric manner, the Cash Settlement Awarded message still has a couple of definite scam signs. I am talking about this line:

This is a Confidential Notification from the West Chester Magistrates’ Court, Any review, use, dissemination, disclosure or distribution by persons other than XXXXXXX is prohibited and is unlawful. DO NOT SHARE

Despite keeping the needed formality, it contains things that never appear in official mailing. “This is a confidential notification” and “Do not share” contradict the fact this message is naught on any details. It specifies neither exposed accounts, nor sum or official claims upon the case. The only thing it has is the name, which is not particularly hard to obtain either. However, there are spam cases where crooks are not using databases with names, preferring depersonalised appeals instead. “Dear user”, “Dear client”, “My friend” and other things should be a red flag as well.

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References

  1. About phishing methods and ways of counteraction.

About the author

Robert Bailey

I'm Robert Bailey, a passionate Security Engineer with a deep fascination for all things related to malware, reverse engineering, and white hat ethical hacking.

As a white hat hacker, I firmly believe in the power of ethical hacking to bolster security measures. By identifying vulnerabilities and providing solutions, I contribute to the proactive defense of digital infrastructures.

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Name Cash Settlement Awarded virus
Type Email spam
Hazard type Phishing
Threat source Requests to share personal details
Disguise Notifications from West Chester Magistrates’ Court