Ever Been Blackmailed By A Hacker?
Or maybe just someone pretending to be a hacker. I had an email from someone claiming to be a hacker yesterday claiming that they had found a security flaw on my site and asking for money to let me know what it was so that it couldn't be exploited.
Here is the message:
"Hello Sir How Are You I Hope You Are Alright Myself Nakul Mohan I Am Professional Hacker I Am Not A Black-Hat I Am White-Hat I Want To Ask You Something If I Find Some Medium/Critical Bugs On Your Website Than What Credit You Give Me For That ? Did You Give Me $$$$$ Or Bitcoins I Just Want To Secure Your Website."
The mistake I made was to reply to the message, if I hadn't replied then the hacker/scammer would have assumed that the site was no longer being maintained and that he was wasting his time.
After sending a reply saying basically that I wasn't interested, this was the next response I received:
"What Do You Think If I Deface And Hijacked Your Domain Would You Go To Yola And Tell Him It Was Your Fault That Hacker Hijacked My Domain ? Do You Want To See Trailer ?"
I have not responded to this email and am pretty sure that will be the end of it. I did however make sure I had a recent backup of my site saved and checked my security just in case he was a real hacker.
If my site does get hacked I will post about it here.
The main reason for this post is to warn everyone of what looks to be a scam so that if any of you get a message from anyone claiming to be a hacker, you just delete it without responding.
Any site hosted at WA is backed up regularly, but the security of your site is your responsibility, make sure you use hard to guess passwords and consider adding a 2 factor authentication plugin.
As always, please leave comments and feedback below.
Recent Comments
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Thank you so much for this warning! It is sad how much crime there is in this world everywhere, including the internet! :(
All I can say is that I hope it's not something like this, Ben... http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mcov5xecGF1qery84.jpg
That's some scary spam! I've had some tell me how much value they could add to my site, but I've never had a threat like that. If anything happens to your site, report it. There is usually at least one officer in most police departments to deal with cybercrime. Good Luck!
I've had similar messages Ben. Since I use the highest spam filter in Yahoo they go to my spam file. I delete it daily, after scanning thru it to make sure there are no 'good' messages sent there accidently. WP has some fine security plug-ins if you need or want them. :-) Jon
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I have had many scammer emails but never one like that!