If you have received a message that starts with the line “Hello! I'm a hacker who cracked your email and device a few months ago,” you need to do two things. The first thing you must do is find the password that was unveiled by cyber attackers and change it on all accounts that use it. Unfortunately, many continue to recycle passwords, which means that they use the same password for multiple accounts, and if that is the case, multiple of your accounts could be at risk right now. The second thing you should do is report the email address to prevent schemers from using it further. What about the ransom payment that is requested via the message? As you can see, it is not included in the two things that victims should do. In fact, paying the ransom would be a complete waste of money. And what about the removal of malware that, allegedly, is linked to the ‘Hacker who cracked your email and device’ Scam? Keep reading to find out.
What version of the ‘Hacker who cracked your email and device’ Scam email did you receive? While we cannot know that, we have a pretty good idea. Most likely, this email displays a password you have used in the past or are using currently. It probably threatens to leak embarrassing information, photos, or videos with you in them. It also must include a demand to pay a specific sum of money in a specific timeframe. For example, one version of the scam demands a payment of US$890 to be sent in Bitcoins to 1JTtwbvmM7ymByxPYCByVYCwasjH49J3Vj within 48 hours. The message supporting this demand suggests that a photo of users watching videos on adult websites would be sent to all of their contacts if they did not pay in time. According to the message, the photo was taken with the help of a Trojan that, allegedly, has been installed onto the victim’s operating system. Since the email contains a real password, the victim might think that the rest of the information is accurate too, but that is not the case.
Schemers are using scare tactics to make users pay the ransom as soon as possible, and they are succeeding at that. The 1JTtwbvmM7ymByxPYCByVYCwasjH49J3V Bitcoin Wallet that we mentioned already currently has 5.10 Bitcoin in it from 58 unique transactions. The first one was recorded at the end of October 2018, and the most recent one has been made at the end of November. It is possible that other Bitcoin Wallets have been set up too, which is a scary thought. If one wallet has managed to rake in over $18,000, how much can these schemers be stealing from gullible victims? Hundreds of thousands of Dollars, no doubt. The most infuriating thing is that there is no point in paying the ransom. All claims to have videos, photos, and contacts are bogus, and no malware linked to the ‘Hacker who cracked your email and device’ Scam exists either! If you do not believe that, you can always scan your operating system. Employ a legitimate scanner, and it will let you know if you need to delete anything malicious.
Of course, ignoring ‘Hacker who cracked your email and device’ Scam emails isn’t the answer. Yes, you should not click on any links, open file attachments, or follow instructions included in these emails, but you should not just remove them and forget about them. Instead, you need to analyze the message to know exactly what schemers know about you. Most likely, they know your email address and your password only. Depending on how this information was obtained, they might also know your name. This all depends on how the password was leaked, which could have happened during a massive data leak from a popular website or service provider. Malware capable of stealing such information (e.g., Trojans) could have been involved too. Of course, if you need to remove ‘Hacker who cracked your email and device’ Scam-related threats, a legitimate malware scanner will not let you miss that.
The chances are that you do not need to delete ‘Hacker who cracked your email and device’ Scam-related threats at all, but scan your operating system to be 100% sure. Your virtual accounts, however, could be at serious risk if they are protected by the password that schemers obviously know. If that is the case, change the passwords immediately. Also, since schemers know your email address too, beware of other scams that you could be exposed to in the future. Hopefully, you have not been tricked out of money yet, but if you have, take this as a lesson that you need to be cautious at ALL times.