How Lucky Am I?
A Brand New Scam
I received this email today.
It's basically a variation on ransomware, but presented as by the good guys.
Note that I have removed all links and redacted the name of my site that they were targeting.
Name: Wilmer MacGillivray
Email: hacker@control-your-home.de
Message: We are a group of highly qualified ethical hackers who scan tens of thousands of sites every day for critical vulnerabilities and patch them for a small fee.
On your site (redacted by me) - we have discovered 5 critical vulnerabilities, each of which can give attackers full access to your site, databases and the server as a whole.
Pay $3000 (0.15 BTC) by visiting this site where you will be able to copy our bitcoin (btc) address or scan the QR code with your device https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/addresses/btc/38DoTJohF82wwqQVGmBtCYekazUUV9AZpC
And after payment within 12 hours we will fix all the vulnerabilities on your site and you can sleep peacefully without worrying about the safety of your site and server.
If we are hired by well-known corporations, then we charge from $50000 for our services, so you are lucky that we offer you the same service for $3000 (0.15 BTC)
How Lucky Am I?
To be charged only $3,000 instead of their more usual $50,000!
And by Ethical hackers.
I just find these things amusing but I'm sure there must be those who fall for them.
Recent Comments
105
They will try everything and anything.
You can thank your lucky star they aren't asking for $50,000 🙄
I hate scammers!
I'm up to a point where when I get a phone call from them, I go along, just to keep them busy for a while, so they don`t scam anyone else.
Just the other day, I got a call from a guy claiming to be the local phone company (in a foreign language accent)and that they needed to change my Internet router. I went along, and he was asking if it was ok to send someone to my house at 7 am to replace it. (As if the phone company would send someone here that early in the morning!).
Anyway to make a long story short, at the end of the conversation he asked me what bank I was dealing with to verify that I was a real customer and from where I was paying my bill from. I told him the bank of India. He told "me" that "I" was full of $h!t. hahaha! At least he wasn't scamming anyone else for a little while...
It wouldn't matter how much they were asking for. They'd have the same chance of getting it.
Loved your phone scam story.
Morning Phil. I guess some people must fool for it otherwise the hackers wouldn't do it. I suspect they send 10,000s of such emails out every day and hope to reel one person in. It's shame they don't get some proper work done like the rest of us and earn some $$$ in an honest way.
Such is life.
Have a great Sunday.
Paul
So right, Paul. I suspect it's a lot higher then 1 in 10,000. We have a commercial here with the punchline "shuttup and take my money". That's how some people react when faced with what you and I would see as an obvious scam.
Sure, Phil. I think these people prey on the elderly and vulnerable. There's one doing the rounds in the UK now where the 'taxman' calls you. You are told you have to pay a back tax of a few hundred pounds otherwise you will be taken to court and be sent to prison for tax evasion. Now you and I would tell them to (insert 2 words here. Clue - the last word is off) but many people fall for it and give their bank details over the phone. Their bank account is cleared out in minutes.
As she got older my Mother would have been scared by such a call and likely have fallen for it. The people that do this to vulnerable people are scum and cause misery to many people by stealing money they can't afford to lose.
Paul
hahaha, pleased you got my email..lol. Honestly, I loathe these people. Scum of the earth is too nice of a thing to say about them. And the worst thing is they put doubt (a tiny bit) into your mind about if it is true or not. I can not even count the number of times I have been targeted and received emails like this.
But this is a timely warning to make sure you have everything secure as you can, your computers, phones, and websites. And backups of everything these days is essential.
Also when people ask for bitcoin, you know its leaving the country and 90% comes from a criminal source. I was recently reading that North Korea has a whole department in their army for exactly this type of thing. Argghh, time for a quick chill. My blood is boiling.
Pleased you didn't fall for this shite...
Stephen
Sorry, Stephen but I just can't get that worked up about it. And never have even a tiny bit of doubt. I do find them entertaining. Which doesn't mean I don't have sympathy for those unfortunates with enough naivety to fall for them.
I never pay attention to them, they are tossed in trash as junk mail of course, they are scammers so what else is new?
It is funny 🤪 on how they do these things nothing but phishing as usual. I used to get a lot of those now they automatically go to my junk mail, I never see it.
“Oh good grief.” (Intimating Charlie Brown cartoon). Maybe this person needs to pay five cents to talk to Lucy. 🤣
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WOW...only 3k let me jump right on that. Best savings of the year.... It is sad that they get away with it. I am by no means an expert with all this, but even I can see that its a scam. But I am rather curious how many people fall for it.
As long as some do, they'll keep doing it. 1% of 100,00 is 100 and 100 x $3,000 is $300,000, a decent return on a broadcast email. Actually, I received a second one from the Contact Me form on one of my websites (a different one from the first).