Seemingly every day you read of a new Internet threat affecting users. As a result, people are more cognizant than ever. What they do fall for time and again are scams that are seemingly person-to-person. The latest one is especially rubbing people the wrong way.
A lot of people view pornographic material. In fact, it makes up about 30 percent of the content on the Internet, and draws more attention than Amazon, Twitter, and Netflix do, combined. While this may be a bit unsavory, if it’s that popular, there is a place for it on the Internet. The problem is that one ingenious hacker has developed a scam that uses people’s clandestine use of adult material against them.
How the Scam Works
Like many of today’s most prevalent Internet scams, extortion is the endgame. This is the case with this particular scam, which uses the purported possession of private information to blackmail the victim. In this case, the scammer claims to have captured footage of both the adult material that the victim was watching, and footage of the victim as they watched said materials.
The target of the scam is first sent an email that details their current situation, as the scammer wants them to believe it. It should also be mentioned that this email includes a password that the user has once used in the subject line. The rest of the email continues:
“You don’t know me and you’re thinking why you received this email, right?
Well, I actually placed a malware on the porn website and guess what, you visited this web site to have fun (you know what I mean). While you were watching the video, your web browser acted as a RDP (Remote Desktop) and a keylogger which provided me access to your display screen and webcam. Right after that, my software gathered all your contacts from your Messenger, Facebook account, and email account.
How the Scam Works
Like many of today’s most prevalent Internet scams, extortion is the endgame. This is the case with this particular scam, which uses the purported possession of private information to blackmail the victim. In this case, the scammer claims to have captured footage of both the adult material that the victim was watching, and footage of the victim as they watched said materials.
The target of the scam is first sent an email that details their current situation, as the scammer wants them to believe it. It should also be mentioned that this email includes a password that the user has once used in the subject line. The rest of the email continues:
“You don’t know me and you’re thinking why you received this email, right?
Well, I actually placed a malware on the porn website and guess what, you visited this web site to have fun (you know what I mean). While you were watching the video, your web browser acted as a RDP (Remote Desktop) and a keylogger which provided me access to your display screen and webcam. Right after that, my software gathered all your contacts from your Messenger, Facebook account, and email account.
