Fiona_TG
LE
Had this been a few years later than it was old man Steptoe might have got a worrying blackmail email on the matter, something to do with webcams....
Army Rumour Service
Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
Ransomware
- Thread starter Whiskybreath
- Start date
LE
Had this been a few years later than it was old man Steptoe might have got a worrying blackmail email on the matter, something to do with webcams....
Whiskybreath
MIA
Yes, quite disappeared, from all boxes in that address's part of the Outlook system I use. There are about 6 addresses which come together in it, and it's not in any of them. I didn't know that could be done; I expect it's some sort of code in the email which self-destructs it after being opened. There've been times in the past when I could have used that...
Fiona_TG
LE
Simply opening an email is not likely to run any code, that is usually achieved by asking you to perform some action included in the email, click on a link, open an attachment etc. which have the potential to do malicious things, hyperlinks to websites can run malware from them, attachments can contain macros which are code.
Best to consider them well gone (even though this simple type of phishing email has no malware function rather it relies on scaring the recipient to act). Watchword is to be very careful doing anything that an unsolicited email suggests.
I checked whether my old email address had been pwned and indeed it had, as I knew because it was on I had when we were with TalkTalk and their server got hacked.
Followed it through but the password was totally wrong and not one that I'd ever used.
I also get regular emails of the type received by the OP. Fvck me, my webcam must be able to see through a layer of black nasty!
These spammers sent out millions of emails and even if they get 0.01% success rate they make a lot of money.
I've also had someone trying to set up spotify accounts using my old email. needless to say I don't have a spotify account and a email spotify to remove them immediately. Evidently there is a scam where they open a spotify account and sell the details on and try to get your bank details.
Followed it through but the password was totally wrong and not one that I'd ever used.
I also get regular emails of the type received by the OP. Fvck me, my webcam must be able to see through a layer of black nasty!
These spammers sent out millions of emails and even if they get 0.01% success rate they make a lot of money.
I've also had someone trying to set up spotify accounts using my old email. needless to say I don't have a spotify account and a email spotify to remove them immediately. Evidently there is a scam where they open a spotify account and sell the details on and try to get your bank details.
RIGRAT
LE
Apologies bud, this was an SOP I had prepped pre Covid 19.
Obvs need to update it to wear marigold gloves and S10 resi's
jg505
War Hero
Yep. I subscribe to crime email updates from my local Police authority, and actually received one yesterday telling me that there had been a marked increase in the reporting of sextortion/porn scam emails.
dogmeat
LE
That's known as phishing, not ransomware.
Ransomware encrypts all your files and demands payment to restore them.
HTH.
lokiuk
LE
Another one I've noticed is on Facebook, where there has been a sudden increase of adverts for companies you've never heard of having closing down sales with everything free where you only pay for postage, all foreign most alleging to be American
Has scam written all over it...
One trick to use when you are required to provide an email address to sign up or buy something is to stick a 'dot' anywhere in the first part - eg 'joeblogs@whatever.com' becomes 'j.oeblogs@whatever.com' Email disregards these 'dots' in the first part of the address and any replies will still reach your inbox. However, if the original recipient then sells your address on and you begin to recieve messages from firms/people you did not comtact, but the 'dot' is in the address, you will know who sold it. ETA thanks to input from others more in the 'the know', It is likely this only works with Gmail.
Last edited:
dogmeat
LE
Cheers, Sherlock. What do you suggest would be the best way to use this vital information?
NorthfleetNinja
War Hero
Your password was grabbed from a compromised site - you can check which sites using https://haveibeenpwned.com/
It's a very common scam these days, what should you do? Don't pay anything and don't think you've been hacked. Change your passwords and make sure you have different passwords for different sites - lastpass is good for this. Also:
Sextortion Bitcoin scam makes unwelcome return - Malwarebytes Labs
A well-worn sextortion scam is back in user's inboxes. We explain what to look for and why recipients shouldn't panic.blog.malwarebytes.com
Turns out my main email has been pwned 5 times ffs. Cheers for this
Paddy Mayne’s Ghost
War Hero
Just change your current email password and it’s negated.
NorthfleetNinja
War Hero
Will do thanks
Interestingly, mrs kinch asked me the same question. I told her I would write to the offending org/individual and complain, threatening to shame them publically. She knows me better than that, she said I couldn't be bothered to do that and that I was more likely to write to them in a profane and threatening manner.
I asked her how she would address them, she said she would begin with 'Dear Sir or Madam..........at which point I interjected with 'you are a cnut'. She took the huff, and after I stopped laughing, suitably chastised, I promised not to do any such thing. So, to answer your question, not much you can do other than avoid using the offending org again as at least you will know who is leaking your info.
As for your inevitable supplementary question, as very high risk peoples, we are in our seventh week of lockdown.....you would be surprised at the levels we stoop to for entertainment.
Are you sure about that? I'm fairly sure it's a Google-only flaw in their email system as the '.' is a valid part of the local address
A better way and one that complies to RFC 5322 is to use '+unique_id' or (Unique_id) in the local part of the email address, that way, it will be obvious where the data leak comes from
So, with a base email of firstname.lastname@example.org you could use
firstname.lastname+arrse@example.org
or
firstname.lastname(arrse)@example.org
as valid email addresses to sign up to a website that requires email verification. Note that if you reply to an email sent to firstname.lastname+unique_id@example.org, the local part of the email address will not include the additional field with most email clients.
Also note that although it is a valid part of the email address structure, not all websites allow it's use. I've been using the modified local fields since the early 00's and it has revealed some 'sharp practices' from address lists being sold-on rather than hacked, notably in the recruitment and estate agent sectors. I've yet to come across a case where anyone has been clever enough to remove the + or () identifiers in order to obfuscate their sources.
On a slightly different tangent, I also disable and remove the drivers for laptop webcams, to be sure. I have had several laptops that had hardware switches for the webcam & microphone, think they were Toughbooks, the ones I have now still have the Wifi on a hardware switch but no webcam fitted, might have been HP though.
ETA: as a great example of how most website software doesn't follow RFC's properly, in the above examples you can see that firstname.lastname(arrse)@example.org isn't hyperlinked but firstname.lastname+arrse@example.org is, despite them both being correct use of the local part of an email address.
Last edited:
Yes, I certainly use gmail and although I have long binned the source article, I believe you are correct. Must try your method. Cheers.
Faded
Old-Salt
I had the same email albeit worded differently. For a moment I thought it was real as I would have defiantly used the password in the past and it was from a normal @outlook.com address not your random letters and numbers jumbled together.
I checked the Have I Been Pwned site and reckon it was hacked details from the old social media site Netlog.
I checked the Have I Been Pwned site and reckon it was hacked details from the old social media site Netlog.
