This is a new (to me) scam | Hacker News Reader

This is a new (to me) scam

11 pointsColinWright10 comments

A new (to me) scam - this turned up in three of my honeypot addresses:

(reformatted)

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Hi, victim.

This is my last warning.

I write yоu beсausе I рut а malwаre оn thе web рage with рorn which yоu hаvе visitеd. My virus grabbеd all yоur рersonаl infо аnd turnеd оn yоur сamerа which cаpturеd thе рrосеss оf your оnanism. Just after that thе soft saved your cоntaсt list. I will dеletе the cоmрrоmising video and infо if yоu pаy mе 300 USD in bitсоin. This is addrеss fоr paymеnt : <redacted>

I give yоu 30 hоurs aftеr you oреn my messаgе for mаking thе trаnsасtion. As sоon аs yоu reаd the mеssagе I'll sее it right awаy. It is not necеssary tо tеll me that you have sent mоnеy tо me. This аddrеss is соnneсted to yоu, my system will dеlete evеrything аutоmаtiсally after transfer сonfirmаtion. If you neеd 48 h just rерly оn this lеtter with +.

Yоu can visit the pоlice stаtiоn but nobody саn help yоu. If you try tо deceive mе , I'll sее it right аway ! I dont live in your соuntry. So thеy саn not trаck my location even for 9 mоnths. Goodbye. Dоnt fоrgеt аbout thе shame and to ignоre, Your life сan be ruinеd.

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Interestingly, the messages had different addresses, leading me to wonder if a sufficiently motivated techie could actually trace anything.

It didn't even come with any kind of proof? Like a leaked password or your full name?

There is a spam attempt threatening with death https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/7iymgu/got_an_emai...

Nope - no proof. Nothing.

I've just realised why the input box marked everything as mis-spelled - there is a huge number of non-standard characters there. The other two emails are essentially the same.

Usually I see this one with a previously leaked password associated with your email address, that they're hoping you still use and might be associated with an adult site account. Perhaps your honeypots don't have one so they used a template without it.

Interesting - so it's a known scam. It's the first time I've seen it.

And no, no passwords were quoted or suggested. Possibly, as you say, because there are none with the honeypot addresses, although all the addresses have used services, so can have passwords.

How long have these accounts been out there though? As an example, I changed email addresses a few years ago, and have yet to get a breach notification at my new address from HIBP, though I somewhat regularly get notifications for my old one(s). This tells me that the majority of breached password data is at least a few years old.

And yeah, it's known, but still relatively recent. I probably first heard about it two or three months ago.

These addresses have been out there quite a while - certainly more than 5 years, possibly as much as 10, and maybe even 15 in one case.

This also looks like a variation on https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/993251/porn-blackmail-scam...

I could be grasping at straws but words like "onanism" and "soft" instead of software are quite characteristic of Japanese native speakers of English.

The rest of the English is a little too good though...

Probably an attempt to avoid spam-filtering. It is common to see similar "odd" word-choices and euphemisms in spam-mail.

For example a mail I received today was promising some magic pills to make my "my snake grow like an anaconda"!

My onanism? I'd pay out just for the vocabulary...

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