Interesting Ransomeware email

JohnB47

I think ransomeware is the term.

Just received an email today. Here is some of the text:

"Hi, I know one of your passwords is: XXXXXX

Your computer was infected with my private malware, your browser wasn't updated / patched, in such case it's enough to just visit some website where my iframe is placed to get automatically infected, if you want to find out more - Google: "Drive-by exploit".

My malware gave me full access to all your accounts (see password above), full control over your computer and it also was possible to spy on you over your webcam.

I collected all your private data and I RECORDED YOU (through your webcam) SATISFYING YOURSELF!

After that I removed my malware to not leave any traces and this email(s) was sent from some hacked server.

I can publish the video of you and all your private data on the whole web, social networks, over email of all contacts.

But you can stop me and only I can help you out in this situation. Etc. "

Now the password XXXXXX is one I have probably used in the past and maybe use now - but not for anything financial. (I'll check that and make changes where necessary).

I'm treating this as fake (they couldn't have recorded me doing something I don't do) but I'm wondering how they could have this password. Perhaps a data hack of some company years ago?

Also, what program should I run to make sure my PC hasn't been infected - I stopped using Avast the other day and now rely on Windows Defender/Security.

DoaM

It'll be from a past data hack ... check the details at ';--have i been pwned? to see where it might have come from.

And it's not Ransomware ... this is speculative blackmail. They'll have sent the same email to lots of people (changing email/password accordingly) in the hope that they'll get a "bite". Your PC is highly unlikely to have been infected.

AndyPix

Delete and ignore - nothing unusual or interesting here

Ant555

JohnB47 wrote: »

I'm treating this as fake (they couldn't have recorded me doing something I don't do) but I'm wondering how they could have this password. Perhaps a data hack of some company years ago?

You are correct, the email address/password combination has been stolen from some web site at some point in time. There is a chance that it has been bought by someone to send out these messages and they are hoping that some people will think "blimey, that really is my password so i'm in trouble here and I better do what they say"

Also, the bad guys try the email/password combinations on lots of popular web sites such as ebay/amazon/paypal/itunes/hotmail and many, many more - if the person has used the same details on other web sites then you can see that they have a bit of an issue there as the hackers can cause some disruption as they will have full access.

You can see now why its not advisable to use the same password on more than one site as you just never know - even some big players that spend millions on security have had data stolen.

As already suggested, you have nothing to worry about with regards to this emai.

Hope this helps

grumpycrab

Ant555 wrote: »

the bad guys try the email/password combinations on lots of popular web sites such as ebay/amazon/paypal/itunes/hotmail and many, many more

that should get the OP to change his/her passwords!

donnac2558

DoaM wrote: »

It'll be from a past data hack ... check the details at ';--have i been pwned? to see where it might have come from.

And it's not Ransomware ... this is speculative blackmail. They'll have sent the same email to lots of people (changing email/password accordingly) in the hope that they'll get a "bite". Your PC is highly unlikely to have been infected.

This site does not tell where it comes from the past hack unless you subscribe?


I admit I have different passwords all over the place and need to write them down to remember which one goes with which.

dan958

donnac2558 wrote: »

This site does not tell where it comes from the past hack unless you subscribe?


I admit I have different passwords all over the place and need to write them down to remember which one goes with which.

Use something like LastPass!

ballyblack

Interesting Ransomeware email

Sorry, no its not!

Mark as Spam and move on

.

FreeBear

Phishing hoping you will bite. I've had several of these and know they are bogus. Don't have a camera attached, don't run M$ Windows.


Also getting a bunch of emails telling me that my email account is going to be deactivated....<yawn> As I run my own email domain/server that isn't going to happen any time soon.

JJ_Egan

And very old news at that .
Kaspersky and Trend Micro and others have online viri scanners . Also use malwarebytes .

DoaM

donnac2558 wrote: »

This site does not tell where it comes from the past hack unless you subscribe?.

Did you scroll down the page? There it tells you where the email address may have been compromised from.