ESET: extortion scams are distributed via e-mail

Η warns users of fake emails that seek to extract money, especially from people who watch online pornographic videos.

The cybercriminals behind these emails claim to have violated the victim's device and have recorded the person while watching pornographic content. The message assures that in addition to capturing the webcam behavior, the videos that have been played are also recorded.

"Cyber ​​criminals are asking for an amount of about 0,40-0,45 Bitcoin - US $ 2.000 not to disclose the material, but we've already seen messages asking for other amounts," he explains. Ondrej Kubovic, Security Awareness Specialist of ESET.

"Once the email opens, the victim has 48 hours to pay, otherwise cybercriminals are threatening to send the incriminating video to all the contacts he managed to steal from the broken device," adds Kubovič.

Σε προηγούμενες απάτες με sextortion scam που είχε εντοπίσει η ESET, τα email ήταν κυρίως στα αγγλικά, ωστόσο τις τελευταίες ημέρες εντοπίστηκαν email προσαρμοσμένα στην αντίστοιχη της κάθε χώρας κυρίως σε Αυστραλία, Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες, Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο, , , Spain, Czech Republic and Russia.

ESET warns the public that this fraud is an attempt to extortion and that cybercriminals do not really have such a video of the victim.

Email scams like these have been appearing for years and are not a new form of fraud. The specific case in which an attacker usually asks the victim to pay money is called sextortion.

Το sextortion μπορεί επίσης να αφορά την περίπτωση που ο κυβερνοεγκληματίας έχει πραγματικές του θύματος, που έχει αποσπάσει, για παράδειγμα, από μια κατ' ιδίαν συνομιλία μέσω ενός ψεύτικου προφίλ. Πρόκειται για ιδιαίτερα επικίνδυνη απάτη αν το θύμα είναι παιδί.

What differentiates this particular scam from the previous is the efficiency of social engineering that has been used, especially given the targeting ability of users who have hidden pornographic content on their devices.ESET

In some of the previous versions, the email seemed to be "coming from the victim's e-mail address", which confirmed the allegations of cybercrime for violating the device.

In an even older one In this scam, the attacker claimed to know the victim's password, and to prove his claim, he embedded the password in the body of the message.

In this case, cybercrime had probably acquired the code through one of the big data leaks that included billions of authentic login names and passwords. If a user has actually used the password mentioned in this scam, they may be afraid and make a payment.
Another reason this scam is effective is because of the sensitive issue of pornography. As many people visit hidden pages with pornographic content, the idea that their family, acquaintances, colleagues or their colleagues can learn about their behavior is extremely unpleasant.

“If you receive such an email in your mailbox, please act wisely and avoid rash actions. First of all, don't respond to the scam, don't open attachments, don't click on embedded content, and definitely don't pay.

If you see your real password listed in the message, we recommend that you change it and enable two-factor authentication checking in this correspondence.

Cybercriminals often try them and use the compromised account at least to spread their messages.

Scan your device with trusted software that can detect real infections and other problems, such as malicious use of the built-in webcam, so it can then be fixed, for example, by simply adding tape over the lens," concludes Kubovic.

iGuRu.gr The Best Technology Site in Greecefgns

every publication, directly to your inbox

Join the 2.100 registrants.

Written by newsbot

Although the press releases will be from very select to rarely, I said to go ... because sometimes the authors are hiding.

One Comment

Leave a Reply
  1. Very nice article!
    I would also like to add a classic case of scammers' failure, which is that usually such messages go to the unwanted because the sender is hiding behind non-existent addresses so the recipient almost never sees it.

Leave a reply

Your email address is not published. Required fields are mentioned with *

Your message will not be published if:
1. Contains insulting, defamatory, racist, offensive or inappropriate comments.
2. Causes harm to minors.
3. It interferes with the privacy and individual and social rights of other users.
4. Advertises products or services or websites.
5. Contains personal information (address, phone, etc.).