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Scam porn extortion email: 'I greet you! I have bad news for you. I hacked your operating system.'
With news stories of hacking into credit card companies, Facebook accounts, email accounts, cell phones being hacked and more, scammers are busy trying to take advantage of fears of being hacked. While it certainly is possible to have all of these hacked, many scammers simply prey upon consumers' fear of being hacked to extort their victims into surrendering money. The FBI is seeing an increase in the number of reported extortion attempts of a sexual nature; what's known as sextortion. In one recent month, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3, received an additional 13,000 complaints about the sextortion scam over the previous months. Sextortion occurs when someone threatens to distribute your private and sensitive material if you don't provide them with images of a sexual nature, sexual favors, or money.
Here is a common, and unfortunately, popular example of this.
The email
A victim receives an email similar to the one below. In this email, the scammer claims:
- You visited a porn website.
- He installed software on porn to allow him to hack your device (computer, tablet, phone). He says that allowed "your browser initiated working as a RDP that has a key logger which gave me access to your screen and also web camera"
- His software "collected your complete contacts from your Messenger, Facebook, as well as emailaccount"
- He activated the camera on your device and recorded you watching porn and created a split screen video of you and the porn.
- He can tell that you read the email
- He can't be traced.
After making these claims, he then issues his threats: you pay him by bitcoin or he will send the video to everyone in your contact list.
Example scam email:
From this email address (may be spoofed): Romola Wofsy <txderrikazo@outlook.com>
I greet you!
I have bad news for you.
11/08/2018 - on this day I hacked your operating system and got full access to your account
It is useless to change the password, my malware intercepts it every time.
How it was:
In the software of the router to which you were connected that day, there was a vulnerability.
I first hacked this router and placed my malicious code on it.
When you entered in the Internet, my trojan was installed on the operating system of your device.
After that, I made a full dump of your disk (I have all your address book, history of viewing sites, all files, phone numbers and addresses of all your contacts).
A month ago, I wanted to lock your device and ask for a small amount of money to unlock.
But I looked at the sites that you regularly visit, and came to the big delight of your favorite resources.
I'm talking about sites for adults.
I want to say - you are a big pervert. You have unbridled fantasy!
After that, an idea came to my mind.
I made a screenshot of the intimate website where you have fun (you know what it is about, right?).
After that, I took off your joys (using the camera of your device). It turned out beautifully, do not hesitate.
I am strongly belive that you would not like to show these pictures to your relatives, friends or colleagues.
I think $801 is a very small amount for my silence.
Besides, I spent a lot of time on you!
I accept money only in Bitcoins.
My BTC wallet:
You do not know how to replenish a Bitcoin wallet?
In any search engine write "how to send money to btc wallet".
It's easier than send money to a credit card!
For payment you have a little more than two days (exactly 50 hours).
Do not worry, the timer will start at the moment when you open this letter. Yes, yes .. it has already started!
After payment, my virus and dirty photos with you self-destruct automatically.
Narrative, if I do not receive the specified amount from you, then your device will be blocked, and all your contacts will receive a photos with your "joys".
I want you to be prudent.
- Do not try to find and destroy my virus! (All your data is already uploaded to a remote server)
- Do not try to contact me (this is not feasible, I sent you an email from your account)
- Various security services will not help you; formatting a disk or destroying a device will not help either, since your data is already on a remote server.
P.S. I guarantee you that I will not disturb you again after payment, as you are not my single victim.
This is a hacker code of honor.
From now on, I advise you to use good antiviruses and update them regularly (several times a day)!
Don't be mad at me, everyone has their own work.
Farewell.
The truth
Notice that except for your email address, all of the information
is vague, general and definitely not specific to you. Notice also
that he provides no proof or evidence of his claims. It's pretty
obvious that if you were to attempt to extort someone like this, you
would provide at least a brief clip of the video you claimed to have
to prove that you could follow through. This is an obvious sign of
the scam nature. Of course, if you don't visit porn websites,
then you would also obviously know immediately this is a scam.
Unless of course, you believe you watch porn in your sleep ("somnapornography"
While all of the claims are theoretically possible, it would take a pretty sophisticated scammer to achieve this. And a scammer like that is not going to target individuals; they'll go after corporations and bigger targets.
Variations
Some versions of the scam, like the one above, include one of the recipient's real passwords as "proof" that their claims are true. Criminals are sending emails and letters using their victims' authentic personally identifiable information to make their claims appear legitimate. How did they get your password? Most like they bought a list of usernames and passwords on the "dark web" from other hackers from a data breach like the ones you've heard about in the news: Experian, Yahoo, Wells Fargo, etc. Which means they are using a cut and paste program to send out thousands, or even millions of the scams.
What to do
-
First, do NOT reply to the scammer.
-
Do NOT pay the scammer.
-
Never send compromising images of yourself to anyone, no matter who they are or who they say they are.
-
Do not open attachments from people you do not know.
-
Turn off your electronic devices and web cameras - and cover or physically disconnect web cameras when you are not using them.
-
Report the scammer to Bitcoin (see below)
Report the scammer to Bitcoin
How To Report a Bitcoin Scam, Blackmail, Extortion or Theft:
-
Create a free account on Bitcoin (you need this to report a scam to them; it costs nothing and you don't need to give them any sensitive information; just an email address so they can get back to you)
-
Thenlogin on Bitcoin
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Then click the "Report Scam" button on the page that comes up in step 3 (not here) (it looks like this:
)
If you are receiving sextortion threats, you are not alone. The FBI says in many sextortion cases, the perpetrator is an adult pretending to be a teenager, and you are just one of the many victims being targeted by the same person. If you believe you're a victim of sextortion, or know someone else who is, the FBI wants to hear from you:
Contact your local FBI office (or toll-free at 1-800-CALL-FBI).
Next, the FBI recommends that if you have experienced this situation please notify the IC3 by filing a complaint.
If the email contains information that identifies you personally
(other than your email address alone; for example, address, complete name, etc.)
you should contact your local or state police and
local FBI office.
If you also forward a copy of the emails you receive here, we will examine them as well.
To see many other versions of the porn extortion scam, click here.
For a comprehensive list of national and international agencies to report scams, see this page.