23/04/2020
P**N SCAM EMAIL EXTORTION
Ok hopefully got that folks attention - just because we are all in lock down doesn't mean the scammers have let folks off the hook just now.
Have you receive one of those âp**n scamâ emails in the past week or so? Millions of people did â in fact, the number was probably more like tens or even hundreds of millions, with some people reporting that theyâd had two, three and even five different flavours of scam in the past few days!
Even if youâve never had a sextortion email sample of your own, youâre probably familiar with the âp**n scamâ scenario, where cybercrimals send a message out of the blue that says something along these lines:
ATTENTION! We implanted malware on your computer, which means we have been keeping tabs on you, including grabbing your passwords and getting access to your accounts.
We also used this malware to film you via your we**am and to take screenshots of your browser.
We made a video of you on a p**n site with the screenshots and the we**am footage side-by-side.
Oh, and the clock is ticking, so pay us some money pretty darn quickly or weâll send the video to your friends and family. (We know who they are, because we have your passwords, remember?)
The extortion demand is typically somewhere from $700 to $4000, payable to a Bitcoin address provided in the email.
The good news is that itâs all a bluff, because the crooks behind this scam donât have malware on your computer, donât have a video of you doing anything, donât have screenshots of your browsing habits, and havenât just stolen a list of your friends and family to send their non-existent video to.
The bad news is that this sort of email is extremely confronting, even if you donât watch p**n and donât have a we**am, because blackmail is an odious and unsettling crime under any circumstances.
What makes it worse is that the crooks often include a password in the email as âproofâ of their claim to have malware on your computerâŚ
âŚ.and that password very often really is a password you once used, even if itâs a few years old now or for an account youâve already closed.
In truth, the passwords sent out in these scams have typically been dredged up from old data breaches.
Although the password you see may have been your password once, the crooks didnât get it from your computer recently. (Word of warning: if you are still using that password, or anything like it, on any online account, change it now!)
As you can imagine, once recipients of these emails realise itâs all a cruel and criminal hoax, and that some crook is simply preying on their fears, the pressure is off and they can relax.
If you ever get one of these emails simply delete it and NEVER reply to the sender - no point in letting them know your email address is still active and therefore painting a target onto yourself for future scams.
Andy
