Facebook RANSOM: Hackers threaten to release sensitive videos, demand THOUSANDS in Bitcoin
FACEBOOK users have been threatened with having sensitive videos leaked by cybercriminals unless thousands of pounds in Bitcoin is paid.
By DION DASSANAYAKE
Express.co.uk
Sun, Jul 15, 2018
Facebook fans are being warned after cybercriminals have started targeting users and demanding a Bitcoin ransom from them.
The threat begins with victims being sent an e-mail from cybercriminals which in the e-mail subject has a password for one of the websites they use.
And, unlike with other similar threats, users have said these passwords are genuine and recent.
The cybercriminals say the password were obtained after they placed malware on a video on adult websites.
And the crooks claim they will send everyone on the victim’s Facebook, Facebook Messenger and e-mail contact lists some very embarrassing footage.
They claim they have a recording of the victim watching adult content which they will release if the ransom is not paid.
The cybercriminals demand payment of more than £2,000 in Bitcoin to keep quiet.
Action Fraud – the UK’s national fraud and cyber crime reporting centre – were alerted about the terrifying messages by victims.
However, while the scammers claimed to have obtained the passwords from malware – Action Fraud said it came from a previous data breach.
In a post online, they said: “Action Fraud suspects that the fraudsters may have gained victim’s passwords from an old data breach.
“After running some of the victim’s email addresses through ‘Have i been pwned?’, a website that allows people to check if their account has been compromised in a data breach, Action Fraud found that almost all of the accounts were at risk.
“Last month, fraudsters were also sending emails demanding payment in Bitcoin, using WannaCry as a hook.”
The e-mail from the cybercriminals demand the victims pay the Bitcoin ransom within one day.
And if the money isn’t stumped up then the crooks threaten to share footage of the victim watching adult content and send it to their loved ones.
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