21 Jul I Am Being Extorted By a Hacker. Are You?
This morning I scrolled through my junk mail to make sure my very aggressive spam-blocker had not culled an innocent email. Imagine my surprise when I saw a subject line that broadcast the password I use on many of my accounts. The email was from an unidentified person claiming to have hacked into my computer when I was online, stolen my contacts, and video’d me searching through porn sites.
He said if I didn’t send him $1000 in bitcoin within 24 hours, he’d send this video to all of my contacts. The suggestion was that he caught me masturbating as I watched these porn sites.
More on this in a moment.
He had one of my passwords, so he’d gotten access to something. What exactly had he gotten and how far had he reached into my private life? Yes, frightening. Whether or not he has a compromising video of you, a sociopathic hacker can ruin your life online–crash your websites (I have several), harass your friends with bogus emails, make you a pariah in one way or another with malicious misdirection and interference.
If that were to happen, you’d have to bail out, wouldn’t you? I mean get off the internet. Start a new email account so that you can correspond as necessary but otherwise burn up and rake out as much of your previous online life as possible. This would be inconvenient, without a doubt, and perhaps maddening. But would it be tragic?
We talk of taking vacations offline for better mental health. Well, then, here you have a good excuse to expunge the internet from your life. No more social media. No more chasing after the FOMO phantoms of the cultural scene. I’m not kidding. Just get out.
Keep in mind that hackers–like parasites of any kind–aim for the easiest targets. If I’m willing to destroy everything before he does, then I’m not a good bet. So I tell myself I’m willing. If a hacker strikes a match and says, with his evil online smile, “How about a little fire, scarecrow?” I’ll torch everything myself. F**k him.
Here’s the main thing: do not surrender. Never give these criminals a dime. If you do, they’ll be back for more. That’s a guarantee.
Second: report them. Right away. Start with the FBI’s Internet Crime Report Center: https://www.ic3.gov/crimeschemes.aspx
Third: Cover up the camera eye on your computer. A little piece of tape will do. Hacking has gotten so sophisticated that someone could get into your computer and spy on you without the camera light ever glowing. I know, this is enough to make you very paranoid, but it’s the world we now live in.
Fourth: most of these criminals don’t have the time or energy to chase after a bad bet. They are playing the odds. Guess what? 64% of American men watch porn regularly. So, odds are that if a hacker sends an extortion email like mine to 10 men, 6 of them will be ideal targets. The other 4? No luck.
I’m among the other 4. I don’t do porn. More specifically, I don’t masturbate while online. Have I ever looked at porn online? Yes, about 10 years ago, I looked at several sites: i.e., the bear went over the mountain, to see what it could see. Not very interesting.
But let’s dig a bit deeper: unless you stay put–flat in your seat–while pleasuring yourself in front of your desktop, your camera isn’t going to capture your face. And, in any case, it’s not going to capture the action below the desk. Further, most people online nowadays are using their phones. How much is that camera going to capture?
Be all that as it may: if such a video of you exists, you don’t want others to see it. I totally understand. Most definitely you don’t want your boss to see it. But my friends and family, I hope, would understand. Masturbation is a fact of life. Do you know anybody who doesn’t do it? It’s not like you were caught killing kittens.
So here it is: below I have pasted the entire extortion letter for you to peruse. Notice that the extortionist makes one fatal mistake: he does not name the xxx site or sites I was supposed to have visited. He’s phishing. F**k him.
Lets get directly to purpose. You don’t know me and you are most likely thinking why you are getting this e-mail? Nobody has paid me to check you.
Let me tell you, I actually setup a software on the xxx videos (porn material) web-site and do you know what, you visited this site to experience fun (you know what I mean). When you were viewing videos, your web browser started out working as a Remote control Desktop having a keylogger which gave me access to your display as well as cam. after that, my software program collected your entire contacts from your Messenger, FB, as well as emailaccount. After that I made a video. 1st part displays the video you were viewing (you have a good taste lmao), and next part displays the view of your web cam, yeah it is u.
You get 2 choices. Shall we analyze each one of these solutions in particulars:
1st solution is to ignore this e-mail. As a consequence, I most certainly will send out your actual videotape to each of your your contacts and thus think about regarding the humiliation you will see. In addition in case you are in a loving relationship, how it will certainly affect?
Second choice is to give me $1000. Lets describe it as a donation. In this case, I most certainly will immediately erase your videotape. You could keep your daily routine like this never took place and you never will hear back again from me.
You will make the payment via Bitcoin (if you do not know this, search “how to buy bitcoin” in Google).
BTC Address to send to: 1GPevjZsWQaiJnD351vaJzekSrRTBrnZeu
[CASE sensitive so copy & paste it]If you are wondering about going to the cops, look, this e-mail can not be traced back to me. I have covered my actions. I am not looking to demand a lot, I simply prefer to be rewarded. I’ve a specific pixel within this e mail, and right now I know that you have read through this e-mail. You now have one day in order to pay. If I don’t receive the BitCoins, I will send out your video recording to all of your contacts including friends and family, coworkers, and many others. Nonetheless, if I do get paid, I’ll erase the recording immediately. If you want to have evidence, reply with Yeah then I will send out your video to your 12 contacts. It’s a nonnegotiable offer, thus please do not waste my personal time and yours by replying to this email.