Have you ever received an email from a stranger saying that you know your password, and that if you don't deposit bitcoins into a certain account, it will leak your information? This practice is common, but don't despair, nothing will happen.
As much as these emails present a great threat, even because they really know your password, they will not do anything at all. They are just automatic emails in the hope of some idiot falling for this scam.
Some hacks are able to hack the database of some sites, you probably must have signed up for one of these hacked sites, so you are receiving an email with your password asking for bitcoins.
I have constantly received the following emails:
Hey, I know your password is: 5468484
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!
After that I removed my malware to not leave any traces.
I can send the video to all your contacts, post it on social network, publish it on the whole web, including the darknet, where the sick people are, I can publish all I found on your computer everywhere!
Only you can prevent me from doing this and only I can help you out in this situation.
Transfer exactly 1400$ with the cryptocurrency DASH (DSH) to my DASH (DSH) address.
It's a very good offer, compared to all that horrible shit that will happen if I publish everything!
You can buy DASH (DSH) here: www.cex.io , www.binance.com , www.bitpanda.com , or Google for other exchanger.
You can send the DASH (DSH) directly to my address, or create your online wallet first here: www.cryptonator.com , www.freewallet.org or download and install your hardware wallet EXODUS first from: www.exodus.io and then send to mine.
My DASH (DSH) address is: XnfypYUMso855erq8vmsdGcFPcnWeUh1G4
Copy and paste my address, it's (cAsE-sEnSEtiVE).
I give you 2 days to transfer the DASH (DSH).
As I got access to this email account, I will know if this email has already been read.
If you get this email multiple times, it's to make sure you read it, my mailer script has been configured like that and after payment you can ignore it!
After receiving the payment, I will remove everything and you can life your live in peace like before.
Next time update your browser before browsing the web!
This has happened several times and nothing has ever happened, not least because this password is old and I use a safe combination of numbers and letters when my registration is on a large and secure website.
Sometimes they are able to deceive the laity, even using the person's own email to send such a message. It may be a good idea to change the password for this email and your accounts if you're afraid, but probably nothing will happen.
First of all, they use bitcoin exactly to avoid being tracked. They do not respond to the email, some do not even receive a reply email. Everything is done automatically in droves to deceive innocents.
Knowing which site was hacked
You can find out how your email and password were leaked to hackers to make these extortion scams using the website https://haveibeenpwned.com. This site shows what leaks your email has been in.
In doing a search I found that my password may have been leaked through the sites bitly, exploit.in, verifications.io and xat. The website records exactly the dates of the leaks and the amount of data leaked by the company.
Note that even large sites like linkedln, myspace and dubsmash can have their data leaked. Nobody is immune from this situation and hackers. Still, I believe that this is not a cause for concern. So always use a different password for each thing.
Other similar scams
The bad guys do everything they can to trick people into e-mails. Fortunately most scams are in English, which means that we are not so muggle as to fall. I still receive emails in Portuguese from banks that I don't even have a registration with.
Similar scams from fake emails happen even in the free market. Recently I have received fake emails from facebook and paypal, which even use real information from me. Don't be a sucker, always check the sender's email and the email's internal links.
They also often use words similar to traditional emails, so be wary of any additional symbols, dashes or letters. Do not open just because you believe the email is official, it is best to go to the site yourself and find the information supposedly described in the email.
Unfortunately because of these scams that are easy to avoid, many end up being afraid to use the internet to get things done. Even today, there are thousands of people who suffer in bank queues because they are afraid to use even a secure application.
If you liked the article, share it with friends. Let's prevent more scams like this from happening ... Have you received any absurd emails like that? Have you ever hit a blow? Tell us your experience in the comments. Thanks!