Think an account has been hacked

[thestrangebrew1]

I think one of my accounts has been hacked, threatening a ransom and if not paid they'll release vid of me watching (fapping most likely) pr0n. They mentioned a pw I use (although not on any important sites that I recall) but if I don't pay in bitcoin (which I don't have or use) they'll release vid to my contacts in FB etc. Anything I can do? What's weird is they sent the email to my work email.

 

[ISAslot]

I've heard of this before. They just looked up your password from a list in a breach and are trying to extort you.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

I just did a google search and Malware Bytes posted the almost exact email:

https://blog.malwarebytes.com/cybercrime/2019/02/sextortion-bitcoin-scam-makes-unwelcome-return/

Ughhh.. Time to just start changing PWs I guess.

 

[BudAshes]

I think one of my accounts has been hacked, threatening a ransom and if not paid they'll release vid of me watching (fapping most likely) pr0n. They mentioned a pw I use (although not on any important sites that I recall) but if I don't pay in bitcoin (which I don't have or use) they'll release vid to my contacts in FB etc. Anything I can do? What's weird is they sent the email to my work email.

Heh. Nothing to worry about, just change your passwords more often. And stop fapping so much(jk).

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

lol video of you fapping...

I mean ffs, who has a webcam pointed at them anyhow?

 

[thestrangebrew1]

I have 1 on my laptop that I've never used, but I guess that would be pointed at me lol.

 

[BudAshes]

lol video of you fapping...

I mean ffs, who has a webcam pointed at them anyhow?

Well most laptops have a camera facing you of them and if someone was determined they could fairly easily get into your computer and take video of you. It's just that most people with those kind of skills have real jobs and aren't going to be bothered trying to black mail people for a few bucks.

 

[highland145]

I said you could send me USD, too.



Reading comprehension, ftl.

 

[BudAshes]

I have 1 on my laptop that I've never used, but I guess that would be pointed at me lol.

You will notice that lots of IT guys have little pieces of tape over their cameras on their laptops due to paranoia(comes with personality type).

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Well most laptops have a camera facing you of them and if someone was determined they could fairly easily get into your computer and take video of you. It's just that most people with those kind of skills have real jobs and aren't going to be bothered trying to black mail people for a few bucks.

That and anyone I've ever known with a laptop (e.g. everyone in my work) always puts a piece of tape over that laptop camera.

 

[ctbaars]

I didn't get p0rn ransom but I did get a well written extortion letter that if I didn't pay, they would release photos and evidence of me cheating on my wife.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

What password manager do you guys use?

 

[ultimatebob]

You will notice that lots of IT guys have little pieces of tape over their cameras on their laptops due to paranoia(comes with personality type).

I have a piece of tape on mine, mostly because I have a Macbook Pro and hackers already found a way to disable the green "camera is on" light on older models of it.

That, and some online meeting software loves to turn on the camera automatically without asking. That drives me nuts.

 

[ctbaars]

I put green tape over the password field. It doesn't work very well and now I have glue all over my screen.

 

[olds]

I put green tape over the password field. It doesn't work very well and now I have glue all over my screen.

Same. Have to use a lot of tape when scrolling though.

 

[Exterous]

You will notice that lots of IT guys have little pieces of tape over their cameras on their laptops due to paranoia(comes with personality type).

Little movable plastic covers you can stick over your laptop's Webcam are pretty common at IT conferences.

 

[BudAshes]

I put green tape over the password field. It doesn't work very well and now I have glue all over my screen.

You are not fooling anyone telling them it's "glue" that is all over your computer. Make sure you get some tape over that camera.

 

[lxskllr]

What password manager do you guys use?

KeePass and it's varaints depending on system. KeePassX on gnu/linux, KeePassDroid on Android.

 

[Muadib]

KeePass and it's varaints depending on system. KeePassX on gnu/linux, KeePassDroid on Android.

Bah!!! https://www.komando.com/happening-n...s-in-5-popular-password-managers-are-you-safe

 

[sdifox]

There is no hacking a piece of tape over the camera lol.

 

[Captante]

Anything I can do?

Beat em' to the punch and post link to video here before they have a chance?

What could possibly go wrong ?!?







*(or you could mark sender as spam, delete msg & forget about it)

 

[compcons]

It's a scam. I can show you literally thousands of these that get sent to my customers every day. The subject line often has a password in it to get you motivated to do something (pay). In a hour, I see dozens sent to multiple recipients with the exact same template. It's such a poor scam, we treat it as nuisance and not a threat. If you Google the content, you will likely see a whole bunch of people who got it. No way do these guys have hundreds of thousands of videos to send to individuals. It's just mathematically impossbile.

These guys pull passwords from publicized breaches. Since many dumbasses recycle usernames and passwords across sites, the scammers are able to get you to flinch when you recognize yours.

Dont pay, dont click, dont give away any additional credentials. Also, don't use your corporate email address for ANY FUCKING THING but work. Every site needs it's own unique password.

 

[Sonikku]

I just got emailed with my password. Was never going to pay, but the timing of it is curious as it so happens that I just got a laptop and I noticed the cam light was going on and off so I disabled it right away in device manager. Probably just overkill, but I changed my passwords and restarted Windows to scrub any data, plus reinstalled Windows. I had only had it a couple of days and was thinking of reinstalling anyway to get rid of all the bloatware in one swift stroke.

 

[Red Squirrel]

These emails are pretty frightening, as it makes me wonder what accounts they have or if they have access to my systems. I get these all the time now it's a point where I may need to change my email that I've had for at least 15 years since it actually puts significant load on my server. I'm wondering if it's just a hoax though. I don't even have a web cam, unless it's my phone they hacked. Android is not exactly the most secure OS and any time you are on data, you're essentially facing the internet directly with no firewall in between and are an easy target.

I have not paid anything yet and nothing has been posted anywhere. I have not actually done any of the activities they say, but with AI all they really need is a picture of you and they can just generate a fake video. I'm often keeping an eye on my network and servers and checking for anything weird and don't see anything, but hackers tend to be good at hiding their traces too... I just keep changing all my passwords it's the least I can do short of completely formatting every single system I have and basically rebuilding everything from scratch. That's months of work. I've gotten to a point where I just use randomly generated passwords for everything. It's a pain in the ass since I need to login to my password manager every time I want to login to something but better safe than sorry I guess. Though changing passwords on it's own is not enough because if they found some kind of exploit in my mail server or something then that's how they're getting in.

I have a feeling I'm not actually hacked though, think they just say that to scare me into paying. They would have probably done more damage by now given I didn't pay.

 

[destrekor]

You will notice that lots of IT guys have little pieces of tape over their cameras on their laptops due to paranoia(comes with personality type).

Not really a personality type or unjust paranoia though, because for a lot of IT folk they also know they'll wind up somewhere shady at some point, might download some less than trustworthy software, and in general may expose themselves to the risks more often than general folk. With the greater exposure, knowing some things can slip through defenses and some zero-days aren't patched right away, and knowing that many cameras can actually be activated without turning the recording light on, it's safe to say it's a justifiable paranoia.

I've yet to actually tape or otherwise cover cameras on my laptops (personal and work), but I'm close to convincing myself I should finally do that.
The work laptop especially should because its a traveling whore, gets plugged into all kinds of networks lol