People have been receiving extremely worrying emails from scammers, which claim that they’ve managed to record footage of them watching pornographic videos.
Unless they cough up thousands of dollars, the scammers claim they’ll send the footage to the victims’ contacts.
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One of the things that makes the scam email, which was first spotted earlier this month by Bleeping Computer, so alarming is its inclusion of a password you either used in the past, or are still using.
According to security researcher SecGuru, the scammers are using leaked login credentials from past security breaches to find targets, and are hoping that they still use the same passwords.
Here’s an extract from one such scam email:
“It seems that, ******** is your password. You may not know me and you are probably wondering why you are getting this email, right?
“Actually, I setup a malware on the adult vids (porno) web-site and guess what, you visited this site to have fun (you know what I mean). While you were watching videos, your internet browser started out functioning as a RDP (Remote Desktop) having a keylogger which gave me accessibility to your screen and web cam. after that, my software program obtained all of your contacts from your Messenger, FB, as well as email.
“What did I do? I created a double-screen video. 1st part shows the video you were watching (you’ve got a good taste haha . . .), and 2nd part shows the recording of your web cam.”
The messages go on to demand a payment of more than $1000 (though we’ve seen variants in which around $3000 is ordered to be paid) in Bitcoin, often with a time limit.
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The entire email is designed to panic recipients into paying up, but they shouldn’t.
No matter how convincing it sounds, security experts say it’s all an elaborate hoax, and that targets should change their login credentials and ignore the threats.
Have you been targeted? Share your experiences with us @TrustedReviews.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.