“Hi, we stole your password. Oh, and you’re a pervert!”
Not a very nice introduction, don’t you think? So, who is this new digital pen pal?
I guess you are wondering what this post title is about. Well, live pause, speedy rewind, and backwards record scratch then play: It all started when, a few days ago, my mother said she had called the police.
She had received an email, well actually two, from someone who claimed to have her password and had hijacked her computer with surveillance software and had been not only gathering all her data but watching her on her camera. She was in their opinion, after reviewing their data hoard, a pervert. Well, I would be lying if I said I hadn’t laughed out loud when she told me that and if you knew my mother, you would too.
What did they say exactly?
Well, they kick off with two important bits of info. Her email and one of her passwords. It’s likely they gained this info from some rubbish website she signed up to several years ago. So when someone sends you an email saying, “Hey, I know your password”, you tend to sit up and listen. We call that the hook.
Next is a rambling email about how they have been watching you on your camera whilst you do rude things, whilst watching rude things. And, unless you want them to post this to all your friends, family, and colleagues, you had better pay with some Bitcoin digital cryptocurrency.
This naturally got my mother very upset which is why she decided to call the police.
Not nice North Koreans.
None of it is true.
Yes, they have a password that you have had in the past or continue to use. But that’s it. There is no hacking software, and they don’t have any of your data, and they haven’t been watching you. You don’t have to think too deeply about what these scammers need to be successful to become a little awkward about writing about it. Needless to say, the victim has to believe they were caught on their own camera, doing something to themselves, whilst watching something akin to the more quirky depths of online pornography. To be fair, I can imagine that some people may be tempted to pay up.
Who is doing this?
According to the police who visited my mother, it was the North Koreans. However, this type of scam is not new and has been linked to various places in the past, such as Nigeria and Russia.
What to do about it?
Ignore it, the email, that is. Change your passwords, especially your email account password. Add two-factor authentication to your most important accounts, especially email. If you want to report it, you can, although, as the police explained to my mother, there isn’t anything they can do. Use a privacy slide on your camera or face it away when not in use because although 99% of these emails are scams, hijackers do exist.
One of the mentioned emails, only this time, they want Litecoin.
To summarise: Ignore them and change your passwords!
Maidstone Technology
Maidstone Technology supports customers against these types of threats. If you have any questions regarding VPNs, anti-virus or internet security, please contact us.
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