The National Cyber Security Incident Response Center (CERT-RO) announces that recently there have been numerous alerts regarding a wave of emails sent by criminal groups. The scam is called “sextortion scam email”.
According to CERT-RO experts, the recipients of sextortion scam emails are falsely informed that the device they are using has been infected with malware and that cybercriminals have taken control of it, according to Mediafax.
“Never respond to emails of this type and immediately inform the IT or cyber experts in your organization,” is the advice of specialists.
The scam is pretty simple. Users are notified that they have been filmed with the webcam of the device used in intimate poses or visiting sites with pornographic content and then are threatened that a video will be sent to all contacts in the user’s address book, to damage the reputation of the potential. victims.
The criminals are demanding about $ 1,300 in cryptocurrency within 50 hours.
Unlike previous cases, the attackers do not provide evidence to demonstrate control over the compromised device or the veracity of what was written.
“This method aims to trigger a panic reaction of the possible victim in order to determine her to pay the required amount as soon as possible. Basically, cybercriminals send such messages in a non-discriminatory and automated manner to a very large number of email addresses, waiting for some of the recipients to react to the email and enter into a dialogue with the criminal group. It relies exclusively on the fact that some users will want to protect their reputation and pay the required amount, without asking for another opinion from an informed person. In order to monetize the effort, the attackers do not need to convince each user, but only a small percentage of them “, explain the CERT-RO experts.
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