Fake Quickbooks Suspension Email Aims to Steal Account Information in Likely AI-Generated Phishing Attack
In this likely AI-generated phishing attack, cybercriminals impersonate Quickbooks and send targets a fake account suspension notification. Using a spoofed email address hosted on a legitimate domain, the attacker claims the recipient’s Quickbooks account has been temporarily suspended and urges them to use the provided link to verify it to regain access. However, the link directs recipients to a malicious webpage, with the sole purpose of harvesting sensitive data, such as usernames, passwords, or even financial information. This attack exploits the trusted Quickbooks brand and the urgency of an account suspension to manipulate recipients into acting quickly without scrutinizing the email’s authenticity. The use of professional formatting, branding, and urgent messaging enhances the email’s credibility, increasing the likelihood of success.
Older, legacy email security tools struggle to accurately identify this email as an attack because it originates from a spoofed address that is unknown to the recipient and contains no suspicious attachments. Modern AI-powered email security solutions detect suspicious links in the email, identify this mismatch between the sender domain and the sender name, and recognize that the sender domain does not match any domains in the message to appropriately flag this email as an attack.
Likely AI-generated phishing email posing as account suspension notification from Quickbooks
How Does This Attack Bypass Email Defenses?
This email attack bypasses traditional security solutions for multiple reasons, including the following:
- Spoofed Email Address: The attacker spoofs a legitimate-sounding email address, bypassing basic email verification checks and adding perceived authenticity.
- Unknown Sender: The email comes from a sender the recipient's email system has not interacted with before. Legacy security tools often struggle to assess the risk of new senders accurately.
- Lack of Attachments: By not including any attachments, the email avoids detection by antivirus and anti-malware systems focused on attachment-based threats.
How Did Abnormal Detect This Attack?
This attack was detected using AI and ML by analyzing various factors, including the following:
- Suspicious Link Analysis: Abnormal's systems scrutinize the presence of links leading to suspicious domains, triggering deeper analysis for possible malicious intent.
- Sender Name and Domain Mismatch: The sender name does not match the sender domain, raising further suspicion during Abnormal’s analysis.
- Unusual Sending Behavior: The sender domain does not match any of the domains found in the body links, raising suspicion.
By recognizing established normal behavior and detecting these abnormal indicators, a modern email security solution has the ability to prevent this attack from reaching inboxes.
Please note the exact detection mechanism from Abnormal Security's system might include proprietary techniques and methodologies not disclosed here.