I recently published a post about blackmail spam in which the spammer was (as far as I could tell) unsuccessful in their efforts to scam people. Unfortunately, another campaign dropped into my inbox over the last couple of days where the spammer has been much more successful.
I’m not going to do the full breakdown that I did for the previous campaign, as they are rather similar, but I’ll try to highlight some differences. First, here’s the full text of the email I received:
Hello!
Have you recently noticed that I have e-mailed you from your account?
Yes, this simply means that I have total access to your device.For the last couple of months, I have been watching you.
Still wondering how is that possible? Well, you have been infected with malware originating from an adult website that you visited. You may not be familiar with this, but I will try explaining it to you.With help of the Trojan Virus, I have complete access to a PC or any other device.
This simply means I can see you at any time I wish to on your screen by simply turning on your camera and microphone, without you even noticing it. In addition, I have also got access to your contacts list and all your correspondence.You may be asking yourself, “But my PC has an active antivirus, how is this even possible? Why didn’t I receive any notification?” Well, the answer is simple: my malware uses drivers, where I update the signatures every four hours, making it undetectable, and hence keeping your antivirus silent.
I have a video of you wanking on the left screen, and on the right screen – the video you were watching while masturbating.
Wondering how bad could this get? With just a single click of my mouse, this video can be sent to all your social networks, and e-mail contacts.
I can also share access to all your e-mail correspondence and messengers that you use.All you have to do to prevent this from happening is – transfer bitcoins worth $1450 (USD) to my Bitcoin address (if you have no idea how to do this, you can open your browser and simply search: “Buy Bitcoin”).
My bitcoin address (BTC Wallet) is: 1A2BsswHPrE2RvUusSQY4w53P1WjuUdpbN
After receiving a confirmation of your payment, I will delete the video right away, and that’s it, you will never hear from me again.
You have 2 days (48 hours) to complete this transaction.
Once you open this e-mail, I will receive a notification, and my timer will start ticking.Any attempt to file a complaint will not result in anything, since this e-mail cannot be traced back, same as my bitcoin id.
I have been working on this for a very long time by now; I do not give any chance for a mistake.If, by any chance I find out that you have shared this message with anybody else, I will broadcast your video as mentioned above.
Some scammer, somewhere. Possibly Poland, based on the IP address.
As you can see, this is fundamentally the same as the email I featured last time, though this one is far more explicit regarding what they supposedly recorded me doing. I think it’s interesting that they say they will file a complaint; I’m not really sure what they mean by that, or where I would do that (except, perhaps, with the ISP who owns the IP address that this email was sent from… which I may yet do).
This scammer is also asking for more money; the last scammer asked for “only” $950 in Bitcoin, whereas this scammer is asking for $1,450, which is a markup of over 50%. And, sadly, when we look at the address in a blockchain explorer, we can see that their campaign has unfortunately been successful, and appears to have netted them over $6,750 as of 1/11/21.
As I write this, the scammer is moving the funds from the address in the email to another address, which may belong to a Bitcoin tumbler or another method to further anonymize the source of their funds so they can withdraw it and convert it to the currency of their choosing.
I’m pretty certain that more transactions will drain this new address (which is 3FxzHGbsojSPVf4d1FJ6QVrn8VcFGQMVJt for anyone interested in doing their own sleuthing) in fairly short order. And unfortunately for the five (or possibly six, if the $377.81 amount was intended as an initial payment to prevent the release of information) current victims of this campaign, their money is already gone and is very likely unrecoverable.
Remember, a hacker isn’t going to single you out for extortion unless you’re a head of state or high-powered executive somewhere. Don’t fall for it.
Have you come across a piece of spam that you think deserves some closer attention? Did you get a blackmail request like the ones I’ve written about? Send it to me at [email protected], one of my spam honeypots, and I’ll take a look at it.