Sharon Koehler

Artistic Stone Design

For a while now I have been telling you about hackers, spammers, phishing, trolling and all manner of online threats. I have been warning you to stay vigilant and protect yourself. I do take my own advice, but sometimes things just happen. Recently I received this e-mail below. I was intrigued by it because it was sent from me to, well, ME!


Hi, your account was recently infected! Modify the pswd right away!

You may not know anything about me and you really are most likely interested why you are reading this particular letter, right?

I am a hacker who burstyour emailand systemsome time ago.

Never try to talk to me or alternatively look for me, it is not possible, since I forwarded you a letter from YOUR account that I’ve hacked.

I build in special program on the adult vids (porn) websites and guess you spent time on this website to enjoy it (think you understand what I really mean).

When you were watching video clips, you internet browser started out functioning as a RDP (remote control) having a keylogger that provided me permission to access your desktop and camera.

Afterword, my softwareobtainedall data.

You entered passcodes on the sites you visited, and I intercepted them.

Of course, you could possibly modify them, or perhaps already modified them.

But it really doesn’t matter, my program updates it every 5 minutes.

What actually did I do?

I made a reserve copy of your system. Of all files and contacts.

I created a dual screen video recording. The 1 part presents the film you had been observing (you have a good taste, ahah...) the second screen displays the recording from your web camera.

What exactly should you do?

So, I believe, 1000 USD is a reasonable amount of money for this small secret. You will do the deposit by bitcoins (if you don’t understand this, go searching “how to buy bitcoin” in any search engine)

My bitcoin wallet address  1BrRQjpENBME7zy7BFim1Uj

(It is cAse sensitive, so just copy and paste it).

Important:

You will have 48 hours to perform payment. (I built in an unique pixel in this message, and at this moment I know that you have read through this email). To monitorthe reading of a letterand the actionsin it, I utilzea Facebook pixel. Thanks to them. (Anything thatis appliedfor the authorities can helpus.)

In case I fail to get bitcoins, I will immediately direct your recordings to all of your contacts, such as family members, colleagues, and so forth?

……

I copied and pasted this straight from my e-mail so all the misspellings and wacky punctuation errors are from the so-called hacker. I don’t even think I need to address those. You can see for yourself. However, if you look closer you can find other red flags that tell you this is not legitimate. 

In the first line he says you should modify your password right away but further down he says you can modify your password but it won’t matter because his program updates every 5 minutes. So which is it? Modify your password or not? 

The second thing is that he says he got me because I visited a porn site. Now for me this is a definite red flag because I do not visit porn sites. So no you didn’t, you are lying, buster! Another red flag is the actual e-mail address used. It is a company address, but an old, inactive one. We switched to another e-mail address (@asdrva.rocks) several years ago. We still own @artisticstonerichmond.com. We just don’t use it anymore –  and haven’t for years. 

As far as accessing my desktop and camera… that’s a big NOPE! My desktop does not even have a webcam! Neither one of my monitors has one, nor do I have an external add-on camera. It’s difficult to access something that doesn’t exist! 

Our porn-hacker throws in a few buzz words that he hopes are scary and you may not recognize, such as Keylogger.  A keylogger or key stroke logging app is a program that can be installed on a computer that at the very least will record all your keystrokes, and let the hacker see what you are typing, including passwords and other vital information. The funny thing about keyloggers is that while they can be installed remotely, the hacker does need your help to do it. You have to open a suspicious e-mail, or click on a malicious link, or visit an infected site. I have heard that porn sites are notorious for this! (LOL)

Facebook Pixel – A Facebook pixel is a code that you add to your website to help track your Facebook ad conversions, and it also helps to optimize your Facebook ads. The Facebook pixel is an analytics tool that allows you to measure the effectiveness of your advertising by understanding the actions people take on a website. It is embedded in a web header to track clicks and actions, like buying something. I have no idea what Facebook Pixel has to do with your email – possibly nothing. In the fake blackmail scheme, it is just being used as a technical-sounding scare word.

Now, truth be told, some hackers send e-mails like this and they really do have you over a barrel, so to speak. However, 99.9 percent of these blackmail attempts are fake, so before you freak out and start trying to buy Bitcoin, analyze what you have in front of you.  (By the way, on the day I finished writing this, one Bitcoin was worth $3,788.71 US Dollars, so I don’t know how you would send .263 of a Bitcoin to a hacker/blackmailer).

Another thing you need to do after receiving something like this is to call your IT people and ask them to do a check of your system to make sure there is nothing nasty hiding in there, as a safety precaution, just in case. My IT guy almost quoted to the word what the e-mail said. He said those are popping up everywhere now. He checked the system anyway and found nothing. 

To end this, I didn’t pay the ransom and nothing happened.  What you do is up to you, and how viable you think your threat is. You may laugh if get one of these, but the threat is out there, and you have been targeted.


Please send your thoughts on this article to Sharon Koehler at Sharon@asdrva.rocks.