Watch Out for the “Programmer Who Cracked Your Email” Bitcoin Scam
The internet can be as dangerous a place as any. And every so often, it gets shaken up by some new threat that jeopardizes the safety of users across the globe.
Thus, one of the latest scares that has come to our attention is that of the so-called “Programmer who cracked your email” Bitcoin scam. Exactly how serious this ‘scare’ is still remains to be determined, as outlined in Tripwire’s very own YAPBS – Yet Another Password Breach Scam article.
What we know about it so far is that various internet users have been receiving emails containing an identical text. It alleges to come from a programmer who has hacked into the email of said users.
The perpetrator behind these messages claims to have gained access to their passwords a bone-chilling six months prior, a time period which would have given them an alarmingly long time to spy and collect data of any type. And according to those same emails, this would have happened thanks to the victims entering their password on some insecure website.
But the problem doesn’t end there. The hacker goes on to say that they have acquired information regarding each and every step the victims have taken on the internet ever since then. Unsurprisingly, some of the websites are alleged to be of an adult nature, activity which the hacker threatens to make public knowledge.
In addition, the short but cryptic message goes on to inform the recipients that their computer has also been infiltrated by an RAT.
This, in turn, leads to a whole series of other issues. RAT stands for Remote Access Trojan, and those can quietly spy on you for obscene periods of time. Not to mention how much other havoc they are capable of wreaking should they indeed be present on one’s (Read more...)
*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from The State of Security authored by Tripwire Guest Authors. Read the original post at: https://www.tripwire.com/state-of-security/security-awareness/programmer-who-cracked-your-email-bitcoin-scam/