Ransomware

Bill Henry-

Brussel Sprout Connoisseur
Joined
Aug 17, 2002
Posts
21,212
Location
Boondock Bowerbank, ME
Business
Retired from the grind
My wife got an e-mail this morning …

++++++++++++++++

Hello, I know your password: [They displayed it correctly here]

Your computer was infected with my malware, RAT (Remote Administration Tool), 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 and control over your computer, meaning, I got access to all your accounts (see password above) and I can see everything on your screen, turn on your camera or microphone and you won't even notice about it.

I collected all your private data and I RECORDED YOU (through your webcam) SATISFYING YOURSELF! [This part is ludicrous and makes me very suspicious]

After that I removed my malware to not leave any traces.

I can send this video to all your contacts (email, social network), on the whole web, I can publish absolutly everything I found on your computer!

Only you can prevent me from doing this and you know that's no joke - you got the proof above!

Transfer exactly 1400$ with the current bitcoin (BTC) price to my bitcoin address.

It's a very good offer, compared to all that horrible s**! that will happen if I publish everything!

++++++++

We haven’t click on anything on the e-mail. But, are we screwed, nonetheless?

I’ve spent all morning calling our banks, IRAs, 401(k)s, etc., putting holds on transactions.

Other than that, is there anything we can do? Is it too late to download ransomware protection software? If not, what should we use?
 
No blocked screen? It might simply be a spammer who does not really have access to your computer.
Was the password for your computer or only your email account?
 
Nothing to see here folks. They bought the password from the dark web and went phishing for suckers.
 
BOGUS, BOGUS, BOGUS

They didn't hack you computer. Your email and password was gotten from lists of major hacks of large companies.

Your computer is fine. J

Just change all your online passwords.

I have been receiving them for months.
 
No blocked screen? It might simply be a spammer who does not really have access to your computer.
Was the password for your computer or only your email account?
No, no blocked screen. We have 50+ passwords stored in “SecureSafe”. Only about 7 (used to) use the one that the ba$tard showed to us. We’ve changed all of those.
Thanks to all youze guys who’ve responded; I’m feeling a bit better now. :)
 
Those emails are very common. Usually they want a bitcoin payment. Like someone said, they got that from one of the hacked websites. It is an old password, likely from years ago. It's important to not use that same password and email combination anywhere important, like a bank or credit card company. Ideally, each place you have an account with should have a unique password - to avoid being owned when someone gains access to the data from a hacked site. They'll usually try that same email/pw combo on banks, email accounts, and other big sites, hoping that the user has the same password.

It's safe to ignore, otherwise.

I received an email yesterday from one of the identity theft websites I subscribe to, ironically, saying that my email and personal info was found yesterday on the dark web from a website that was hacked/data all harvested. (myfitnesspal) That's about the 12th place I have done business with that was hacked. (Home Depot, Experian, Equifax, Facebook, HP, Michaels, Citigroup, Capital One, Marriott, Sony, Adobe, Target, Yahoo, Chase, Heartland Payments, Ebay, Barnes & Noble, British Airways, MyFitnessPal, Ameritrade, Ancestry dot com, AOL, Apple, etc) Having unique passwords minimizes the damage they can do. They still have a lot of personal info, in many cases, unfortunately.

Mike
 
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Yep, I had this one too. My scammer also claimed to have used my webcam to record my (ahem) private activities while looking at a porn site. This was very clever of him because I do not even have a webcam. The password he quoted was one I used yonks ago and have never used on anything which matters.
 
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