Attempted blackmail via email

[Tubetec]

So ,
went to check  my emails today found ,what was obviously spam , the email title alone was enough to warrant putting in the bin right off  ,
I had a carefull look at the contents , apparently a hacker has hijacked my computer and webcam and email , they have recorded me 'self pleasureing'    ;D and will publish this video to every contact in my address book alongside the content I was supposedly watching at the time unless I settle in bitcoin , 500 US equivalent ,within 48 hours .

The whole thing is deleted now , but I'm not even sure if or how Id go about reporting it , it could present a danger to the feeble minded  or children ,

beware of emails with 'Hacker' in the title , just bin 'em is probably best bet , no reason at all to suspect security here by the way , but just keep a watch out all the same .

 

 

[user 37518]

So ,
went to check  my emails today found ,what was obviously spam , the email title alone was enough to warrant putting in the bin right off  ,
I had a carefull look at the contents , apparently a hacker has hijacked my computer and webcam and email , they have recorded me 'self pleasureing'    ;D and will publish this video to every contact in my address book alongside the content I was supposedly watching at the time unless I settle in bitcoin , 500 US equivalent ,within 48 hours .

The whole thing is deleted now , but I'm not even sure if or how Id go about reporting it , it could present a danger to the feeble minded  or children ,

beware of emails with 'Hacker' in the title , just bin 'em is probably best bet , no reason at all to suspect security here by the way , but just keep a watch out all the same .

Did they provide proof of you pleasuring your self?, Thats why I keep black tape on my webcam, just in case  ;D

 

[Bo Deadly]

OMG. That is hilarious. I gotta admit, that is pretty creative. It's the imagery that get's you isn't it?

So let's analyze:

Option A: They hack into your machine, record all of the video and stream it somewhere where some poor schmuck has to figure out if you're "self pleasuring" and then sends you a blackmail email but doesn't even bother to provide a still image of the funniest facial expression.

Option B: They just send out blackmail emails en masse and hope a few saps believe it.

The Internet in general is dangerous. Just think about how many people have been undone by a tweet or FB post. Live and learn.

 

[Tubetec]

;Dahahah, 


I still use my old laptop without built in  webcam ,

I could imagine some with a lot to hide being very worried by a scam like this , never know ,maybe  a few paedophiles might throw themselves onto train tracks or off bridges or something .

Really though it deserves to be reported to some government body ,who forensically examine it and block it from the servers , I could report it to the ISP I suppose , but Im just not sure .

 

[Banzai]

From Black Mirror 2016:

Kenny (Alex Lawther) returns home from his restaurant job to find that his younger sister Lindsay (Maya Gerber) has unintentionally infected his laptop with malware; Kenny downloads a purported anti-malware tool which allows an unseen hacker to record him masturbating through his laptop's camera. The hacker emails Kenny, threatening to send the video to his contacts unless he follows a series of instructions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shut_Up_and_Dance_%28Black_Mirror%29

 

[JohnRoberts]

Fools and their money are soon parted...

These days in the news there is a rash of city computer systems getting hacked and shut down for fat bitcoin payments.  It only takes one dumbass employee to infect a system.

This will get worse (in maybe a decade) when super computers can break the current SOTA data encryption schemes (like SSL) with raw computer power.

I get tons of spam scams (typically won some lottery, or inheritance, or some huge pile of money). Sometimes I will look at the raw source of the email to try to see when the attack came from, but a number of nations don't effectively police such abuses.

Just say no mas...

JR

 

[ruffrecords]

I have had this one many times on an old email account I no longer use. In some they even knew my old password. Clearly they have purchased compromised email account details but my ISP let me know about this when it happened over a year ago. Just bin and forget.

Cheers

Ian

 

[Gold]

I've gotten those occasionally. Like with most things I figure nothing has happened unless something has happened. No one cares if there are naked pictures of me floating around. Certainly not me.

 

[ruffrecords]

I've gotten those occasionally. Like with most things I figure nothing has happened unless something has happened. No one cares if there are naked pictures of me floating around. Certainly not me.

I agree. After all, who wants to see  pictures of a 68 year old man with psoriasis, a paunch and a beard?

Cheers

Ian

 

[Bo Deadly]

Clearly they have purchased compromised email account details

Probably not. It just means that you used that email and password with some site that at some point got hacked and hackers reversed the password hash. For an average browsing-the-web junk email account the chances of that account + password being exposed is quite high. This is why you should use different passwords for sites (even a little different helps bunches) and change important passwords once in a while.

 

[iomegaman]

Scammers gonna scam...

I recently gave my youngest daughter another car, she wants to sell it, I don't care...she listed it in Craigslist...gets a "buyer" who wants her to run the vin number through a "vinchecking.co" service...I told her under no circumstances enter the vin number in the "linked" website...it didn't even end in dot com...

Always check the website source...I get at least three emails a week from "apple.care.com" or "paypal.something else" telling me "Here's your invoice" or "Your paypal account is suspended until you verify______"

Very creative and look quite authentic until you hoover over the link and see it's not going where it says its going...

Bin.

 

[PRR]

This scam has been around a LONG time. Widely reported in media. Discussion:
https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/the-lounge/327642-evil-pathetic-extortion-attempt.html

I've gotten a dozen. Yes, one had "my" password; one I have not used in a decade. I think I even know which breech exposed it (there have been several).

The fact that the email is sent "from my account" is bogus. From: forging is trivial. But not that trivial-- many of these I see only as a "bounce" because some server has detected some error and bounced-back without noting it was the same address. (They are declining so maybe even the bounces are now blocked.)

Nevermind if I go to naughty sites. There is NO webcam on my PC. So that claim is bogus on the funni-face of it.

I am amused that the extortion demand is an amount I "could" pay. Different in every attempt, but generally around $700 bitcoin.

The idea that I could pay once and the incriminating pictures would be destroyed flies in the face of all blackmailery.

I have also got the idea in Spanish. (A friend confirmed that it was a near copy of the english.)

Subject: Security Notice. Someone have access to your system.
From: <pr*@***>
To: <pr*@***>

As you may have noticed, I sent you an email from your account. This means that I have full access to your account.

I've been watching you for a few months now. The fact is that you were infected with malware through an adult site that you visited.

If you are not familiar with this, I will explain.
            ....yada yada yada....
I made a video showing how you satisfy yourself in the left half of the screen, and in the right half you see the video that you watched.
With one click of the mouse, I can send this video to all your emails and contacts
....transfer the amount of $797 to my bitcoin address (if you do not know how to do this, write to Google: "Buy Bitcoin").
After receiving the payment, I will delete the video and you will never hear me again.

 

[pucho812]

You got that one too?  I saw it in my spam folder. I didn’t care. Obviously fake what’s worse is they now try and txt or call my cell. I received a txt the other day from “my bank” about updating records. To txt them with the details. Easily fake.  It happens... I miss the old days with the guy in Africa wanting to use me for a bank exchange. I just picked some prince sitting around huge stacks of money  wondering why no one ever responded to his inquire

 

[iomegaman]

To be fair I barely trust ANYONE anymore...got a text from my bank today they put a "hold" on my card for unusual activity...I use 2FA on my phone to use my banking app (as well as online) so in order to even call them I had to authenticate my identity...pain.in.the.ass.but.better.than.spam...

Anyway, it was the damn phone bill...comes out about the same time every month AT&T its a scheduled payment...they've paid it for years and NEVER flagged it...today for some unknown reason they think its suspicious because the payment center is in Texas..

What.The.Actual.Fig.???

40 minute wait for a call back and then I have to authenticate AGAIN...card is useless during this wait...

Spend 15 minutes with a customer rep and she see's very clearly the payment is scheduled and comes out every month, say's she will "Make a note of it in my file"...

Again WTF????

Turns my card back on...no harm no foul...except I am thinking...Why does BofA have so much power over MY money???

They can simply freeze my account for something as trivial as the location of a payment center ...????

Where's THAT in the customer agreement?

The customer service rep went through about 6 transactions...I had my statement online open at the time, I finally told her the next 4 transactions and she stopped...but if I had ignored the text from BofA there's a good chance AT&T would have found a way to nail me with a late charge...its all about who can trickle bleed you the cleverest...

The finance industry is a a very old leaky electrolytic cap diverting your power via trickle...

I suspect an institution like BofA can make a cool million a day by freezing peoples accounts and using the money (if its not illegal)...

Face it the bitcoin scammers and the banking industry are not that far apart...

 

[tony hunt]

Two weeks back, I had the same run around from a credit card company as iomegaman above. Virtually the same procedure, only repeated 3 times, so I gave up and used a bank transfer.

It caused a lot of grief for the vendor, with whom I have dealt with for over thirty years. I sent him a really great Chateauneuf du Pappe and cut up the credit card beginning with V. The future is in cash, bartering and face to face communication.

 

[JohnRoberts]

CC companies use AI algorithms to flag suspicious CC activity and probably prevent massive amounts of fraud. The occasional inconvenience is probably better than getting ripped off... of course if the CC company has to make good on fraud they will be highly motivated to prevent it.

Despite their best efforts a great deal of fraud still goes on.

JR

PS: Over the decades I have accumulated several acquaintances with poor computer security discipline, so I get spammed presumably by them, but it is just spam spoofing them,  after their email account gets hacked. I used to try to warn these people that their computer/email is compromised but now I don't even bother. What's the point?

 

[pucho812]

To be fair I barely trust ANYONE anymore...got a text from my bank today they put a "hold" on my card for unusual activity...I use 2FA on my phone to use my banking app (as well as online) so in order to even call them I had to authenticate my identity...pain.in.the.ass.but.better.than.spam...

Anyway, it was the damn phone bill...comes out about the same time every month AT&T its a scheduled payment...they've paid it for years and NEVER flagged it...today for some unknown reason they think its suspicious because the payment center is in Texas..

What.The.Actual.Fig.???

40 minute wait for a call back and then I have to authenticate AGAIN...card is useless during this wait...

Spend 15 minutes with a customer rep and she see's very clearly the payment is scheduled and comes out every month, say's she will "Make a note of it in my file"...

Again WTF????

Turns my card back on...no harm no foul...except I am thinking...Why does BofA have so much power over MY money???

They can simply freeze my account for something as trivial as the location of a payment center ...????

Where's THAT in the customer agreement?

The customer service rep went through about 6 transactions...I had my statement online open at the time, I finally told her the next 4 transactions and she stopped...but if I had ignored the text from BofA there's a good chance AT&T would have found a way to nail me with a late charge...its all about who can trickle bleed you the cleverest...

The finance industry is a a very old leaky electrolytic cap diverting your power via trickle...

I suspect an institution like BofA can make a cool million a day by freezing peoples accounts and using the money (if its not illegal)...

Face it the bitcoin scammers and the banking industry are not that far apart...

To be fair they didn’t freeze your money, just the card... my bank has done the same. I rather they do that and deal with a phone call vs fraud.

 

[iomegaman]

To be fair they didn’t freeze your money, just the card... my bank has done the same. I rather they do that and deal with a phone call vs fraud.

Except my account is paperless...meaning no statements in the mail, and no checks...I have not written a check in 8 years, I do not even own a checkbook...there are NO CHECKS ASSOCIATED WITH THIS ACCOUNT...EVERYTHING IS DONE THROUGH THE CARD.

So freezing the card freezes the account and freezes the money associated with it...if the card is frozen and it is the only identifier to get money OUT of the account (and even if I go into the bank to deposit they ask me to insert my card) then for all practical purposes they HAVE frozen my account and in that my money as well.

It happened once before I stopped by a BofA branch to get cash out from the ATM outside, would not allow me to, went INSIDE bank and the manager said he could NOT HELP I had to call the 1-800-number and have THEM remove the hold...

So really its not so much BofA as it is their CC scam department...

And yes as much as it is troublesome it is better than having to fight to get back scam stolen money, my point is the degree of separation between the scammers and the CC hold department is thinner than we imagine.

 

[Phrazemaster]

... my point is the degree of separation between the scammers and the CC hold department is thinner than we imagine.

For this very reason some people say to use credit cards and not debit cards - are you using a full blown CC or a "credit/debit" card?

 

[JohnRoberts]

today's email scam claimed to be the UN tying to contact me about giving me a $10.5M payment... How could I refuse that? Easy.....  :

JR