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Spam, Phishing and other funny traps

Discussion in 'General Chat' started by Killer Angel, Feb 6, 2020.

  1. Killer Angel
    Slann

    Killer Angel Prophet of the Stars Staff Member

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    Gone are the days of the good old nigerian prince.

    look what i received today, sent from my own account (BTW, a very similar post was sent also to my wife).

    ------------------------------

    Hello!

    I've be͏en watching you for a few months now.

    I am a hac͏ker who has access to your operating system.
    You may not know me an͏d you are probably wondering why you are getting this email?
    The fact is th͏at you were infected with malware through an adult site that you visited.
    I also have fu͏ll access to your account
    I sent this message from your ac͏count


    The ha͏cking was carried out using a h͏ardware vulnerability through which you went online.
    When you went online, m͏y exploit downloaded my malicious code to your device.
    Since then I have been follo͏wing you!

    That is, I ca͏n see absolutely everything that you do, view and download your files and any data to yourself.
    I also have access to the camera on your dev͏ice, and I periodically take photos and videos with you.
    At the m͏oment, I have harvested a solid di͏rt... on you...
    My malw͏are uses the driver, I update its signatures every 3 hours so that your antivirus is silent.
    I saved all your email and chats from your me͏ssengers. I also saved the entire history of the sites you visit.
    I note that it is useless to change the passwords. My malware update pass͏words from your accounts every times.

    I took photos and videos of your mo͏st passionate funs with adult content, and synchronized them in real time with the image of your camera.
    I'm sure you don't want to show these files and vis͏iting history to all your contacts.

    With one click of the mouse, I can send th͏is video to all your emails and contacts.
    If you want to prev͏ent this, transfer the amount of $508 to my bitcoin address
    (if you do not kn͏ow how to do this, wri͏te to Google: "Buy Bicoin").
    M͏y bitcoin address (BTC Wallet) is: 1FVZHKGS3PNuEc3Sphv73hqfqaNQ1MBmBz

    My system automatically recog͏nizes the transfer.
    As soon as the specif͏ied amount is received, all your data will be destroyed from my server, and the rootkit will be au͏tomatically removed from your system.

    If I find that you have shared this mess͏age with someone else, the video will be immediately distributed.
    I advise you to remain prudent and not enga͏ge in nonsense (all files on my server).

    You have 48 hours (2 days) t͏o send the payment.
    P.S. If you need more time to pa͏y, open your notepad on your device and write '48h more'. Only this way you can contact me.
    I have a notice reading this letter, and the timer will work wh͏en you see this letter.



    -----------------------------------------------


    Of course, my first worries diminished drastically when it was mentioned the "adult site" i visited, vanishing totally with "I also have access to the camera on your dev͏ice". Which is totally cool, as i don't have any camera on my screen.


    Who knows, i'm sure that someone could be scaried by such a threat. Let me assure you it's a hollow one, this is just a spoofing.


    So, i would say this could be a nice thread to share our funny experience with this new kind of scams.
     
  2. Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl
    Slann

    Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl Eleventh Spawning

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    Yeah, I studied Cyber Security as one of my university modules, and stuff like this is familiar to me.

    Indeed messages like this can often scare people into doing these things, but that's what these vile people want. If you ignore them, they'll know that it's no use trying to get anything out of you and they'll clear off.

    A similar method they'll use is to use messages like this or software that does similar to get people to download software they supply which they have disguised as 'antivirus' or something along those lines - this is called scareware, and again ignoring it is the best defence you have. If you download the package as they tell you to, it's extremely likely that the downloaded content will actually be malware like a virus, worm or even ransomware, so don't be fooled by them.

    Common ways of detecting threats like this are inaccuracies in what they think is your behaviour like @Killer Angel mentioned, and also spelling/grammar mistakes (in fact there are a couple of these in the message you've mentioned). Most of these people will be from corrupt countries that are poor at speaking English like Russia and Saharan Africa, so they generally won't be very good with their English. This one is probably one of the more adept ones, but he still left inaccuracies. Threat detection messages from proper software you've installed, by contrast, will generally be in perfect English because the companies who make them have standards to ensure this is enforced, so you should know when you do actually have a problem as opposed to a hoax problem like in this message.
     
  3. The Red Devil
    Stegadon

    The Red Devil Defender of Hexoatl Staff Member

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    That one was not too bad.

    Before the summer last year, there were a lot of similar spam emails going out, with the difference that they also included a password they claimed was yours.

    The entire list came from previously hacked companies, where they were able to get emails and the password the user had on that system.

    I received several emails myself, and all had passwords I had used in the past. I can only imagine that anyone that is not tech-savvy and uses the same password all over the place, could believe the email, and send them money.
     
  4. ChapterAquila92
    Skar-Veteran

    ChapterAquila92 Well-Known Member

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    I recently had a few amusing spam emails sent my way, including a "Nigerian prince"-style offer.

    There was also one from a supposed Eastern European software developer (Ukraine/Russia) that supposedly specializes in "minimal value products".

    Other notable ones include a faux-pharmacy trying to sell sex pills to five people including myself, and an email in both Cyrillic script and broken English wanting me to buy a browser proxy package.

    Here's the latter:

     
  5. Killer Angel
    Slann

    Killer Angel Prophet of the Stars Staff Member

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    the last one is similar to some of the spams we periodically blast away from this place. :D
     
  6. Scalenex
    Slann

    Scalenex Keeper of the Indexes Staff Member

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    I don't either and I got a similar phishing attempt. I however plan to get such a camera soon. My friends and I are hoping to use computer cameras to play some tabletop RPGs that we can no longer safely play in person.
     
    Last edited: Apr 4, 2020
  7. Lizards of Renown
    Slann

    Lizards of Renown Herald of Creation

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    Yeah, I have a friend who (no matter how many times I tell him to handle his email security) keeps getting hacked, but it's very low tech and just gives a link which no self-respecting computer user would open if their IQ was above 90.

    That said, I know of a gentleman who got a mail from an African with "raw gold ore" that she just "needed money to get melted down into ingots".

    He gave thousands before his daughter disconnected his computer and hid it from him. He really believed that he would get his money back...

    Unbelievable.
     

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