Email Scam: Don't Send Bitcoin to the Hacker Who Claims to Have Hacked You | Total Security

Since the summer of 2018, a wave of attempted e-mail scams and personal data blackmail has been raging on the web. Government authorities are warning against this new kind of fraudulent maneuver.

A sharp increase in email scams

Since the start of 2019, the cybermalveillance. program has noted a sharp increase in attempted scams by email on French-speaking addresses.

First, the user receives an email whose sender is his own address. This one is allegedly sent by a hacker explaining, in a very exhaustive way, how he managed to intercept your address and your password to send you this message.

The hacker continues his interminable speech by explaining that he also installed a virus or a trojan allowing to operate the webcam of the computer and to capture compromising videos of the user while browsing pornographic sites. In exchange for his silence, the hacker offers a ransom ranging from several hundred to several thousand euros to be paid in bitcoins into his account, within 48 hours. Otherwise, the data is sent to the personal and professional contacts of the victim.

How does this information reach cybercriminals?

As cybermalveillance. indicates and as one can imagine, none of the threats of this type have ever been carried out. If the program recommends not giving in to fear and not responding to this type of message, we are entitled to wonder how a stranger managed to obtain the email address, and sometimes even a password to give credibility its mischief.

You should know that to date, hackers have managed to collect more than 2 billion accounts and identifiers, the result of long years of hacking campaigns and exploitation of security breaches on multiple platforms (Sony, LinkedIn, Tumblr , Facebook etc.). But also thanks to unscrupulous sites reselling their accumulated data to marketing companies.

The files containing these 2 billion accounts are available for free access on hackers' sites and forums. For the lucky ones and those whose instinct is to change their password regularly, the information on their account will be obsolete. For others, who have used the same password on all platforms for years for years, the information is still correct. In this case, the fact that a small scammer knows your password is certainly worrying, but it will soon be, and unfortunately, the least of your worries.

If the scammer has used your email address to pretend that he has taken control of it, know that the sender's address in a message is only a display, it can be changed very easily without resorting to advanced technical skills. This is called email spoofing .

If you receive this type of email, cybermalveillance. recommends capturing the message, and reporting its content, email address and bitcoin address to Pharos .

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