Good Hunting... from Varmint Al
Posted on 03/18/2022 12:54:35 PM PDT by Varmint Al
Ransomware. I got this email. I donated to some Republican politicians and someone sold my email address. I get about 100 emails a day asking for donations. Well the ransomware crooks got my email address. These crooks do not know that my operating system is Linux Mint on a home built computer from parts. I have no camera or microphone. I would like to report this to the FBI, but do not know how. Is there a way to track down the crooks by using their Bitcoin wallet and address. The email uses my address as the 'sent from' address. Here is the email in full:
Greetings! Have you seen lately my e-mail to you from an account of yours? Yeah, that merely confirms that I have gained a complete access to device of yours.
Within the past several months, I was observing you. Are you still surprised how could that happen? Frankly speaking, malware has infected your devices and it's coming from an adult website, which you used to visit. Although all this stuff may seem unfamiliar to you, but let me try to explain that to you.
With aid of Trojan Viruses, I managed to gain full access to any PC or other types of devices. That merely means that I can watch you whenever I want via your screen just by activating your camera as well as microphone, while you don't even know about that. Moreover, I have also received access to entire contacts list as well as full correspondence of yours.
You may be wondering, "However, my PC is protected by a legitimate antivirus, so how could that happen? Why couldn't I get any alerts?" To be honest, the reply is quite straightforward: malware of mine utilizes drivers, which update the signatures on 4-hourly basis, which turns them to become untraceable, and hereby making your antivirus remain idle.
I have collected a video on the left screen where you enjoy wanking, while the video on the right screen shows the video you were watching at that point of time. Still puzzled how much damage could that cause? One mouse click is enough for me to share this video to your social networks, as well as e-mail contacts of yours. In addition, I am also able to gain access to all e-mail correspondence as well as messengers used by you.
Below are simple steps required for you to undertake in order to avoid that from occurring - transfer $1550 in Bitcoin equivalent to my wallet (if you don't know how to complete that, just open your browser and make a google search: "Buy Bitcoin").
My bitcoin wallet address (BTC Wallet) is: 1PUwf7ybLvvKLJ8NpWeaEChz4WFQtnC2Gx
Once the payment has been confirmed, I shall remove the video without delay, and that is end of story - afterwards you won't hear about me again for sure. The time for you to perform the transaction is 2 days (48 hours). After this e-mail is opened by you, I will get an automatic notice, which will start my timer.
Any effort to complain will not change anything at all, because this e-mail is simply untraceable, just like my bitcoin address. I have been developing these plans for quite an extended period of time; so, don't expect any mistake from my side.
If, get to know that you tried to send this message to anyone else, I will distribute your video as described earlier.
<p>Good Hunting... from Varmint Al<img src=http://www.varmintal.com/coyotel.gif></p>
Switch to the CP/M operating system and it will fix everythng.
“Ignore it and move on with your life.”
BINGO! Most are nothing. Just ignore, and move on. Nothing to worry about.
I had one of those and I would have never found if I hadn’t put an email in spam by mistake . They said they had my email and was tracking me online(with a throwaway email) , they wanted 5013 bitcoins , it got deleted . They were phishing looking for idiots
You want to report suspected Illegal Ransomware Activity by the FBI to the FBI?? You’re Killing me.
The government is not interested in protecting civilians or corporations from hackers. This was an actual decision made back in the ‘80’s. There is a group set up that appears to have that job, but it’s not dealing with individuals like us.
Okay, so I’ve got no advice about ransom ware.
But posting that you do porn on an open forum may not be the best idea, even if you think everybody does it.
I’m not gonna get preachy but I will relate the tale of the least fortunate screenshot possibly ever. I happened on this tale of woe not long after it had already reached maximum humiliation for the guy involved.
It was, IIRC, on a chevy truck (a truck forum at least, if not chevy) forums and in a thread dedicated to a picture that one of our probes had sent back of Saturn and it’s rings backlit by the distant sun. A magnificent picture that many may recall.
One fellow downloaded the picture to use as his screen picture and was so happy with how it looked that he took a screenshot and posted it to the thread.
A few post later one sharp eyed forumite responded “Nice She-Males Video folder.” and chaos ensued.
Now, we can take comfort that Freepers aren’t the sort that will delight in the misery of others and our esteemed host would not prevent an especially unfortunate post from ever being deleted OR make it the unfortunate guy’s avatar … nope, this will slide here and good that it will …. but this cautionary tale may be of use for any other forum anyone visits.
Best of luck with the other issue.
Oh wow. Thanks for triggering a memory.
In 1981 i bought a microsoft z80 card for my apple II from Omega computers so i could run Sargon
File a DMCA takedown notice for using your image without permission :-)
Could you link me to that decision? I’ve wondered about this.
“Could you link me to that decision? I’ve wondered about this.”
It was from an article I read years ago. The NSA didn’t want the assignment, probably because it isn’t something you can easily “win” at. The logic was that if the government managed to protect, say, IBM, but failed to protect, say, Exon, then it would have preferentially used taxpayer funding to aid one company over another. Below is a search on who protects us from cyber crime. But from what I learned talking to the company IT guys, these guys just take data you give them and then put out warnings and such.
Almost invariably the source is a foreign country, and the perpetrators are either bribing local officials with a cut of the proceeds for "protection" or they are activity sponsored by the foreign government.
Some principal sources are Nigeria, Somalia (!!), India, Belarus, and China.
Short-lived gangs have shown up in the US, Great Britain, Germany, and Israel. They get shut down pretty fast.
Ransomware operations take a lot of time, and the payoff per-hour is relatively low. So is the risk. The big money is in selling ransomware tools to the would-be pirates. The Russians used to do quite a bit of that. Don't know if they still do.
Bitcoins are traceable to all users, back to inception. It is expensive and time-consuming, but possible. You can't do it, but national governments can. When the hits are big enough, they do.
Even though they have spoofed your email address in the email you saw, you could go to the source coding of your that particular email and find the real ip address. Then, do a WHOIS search and you could come up with the place of the sender. I’m also guess that email you received is a .jpg.
It really doesn’t do any good to report to any authority that you received this. It isn’t worth anyone’s time to press on with it.
Just ignore.
I delete (without opening) three to a dozen such emails a day. Just part of the price of being on the Innertubes.
My email provider (NOT Guugle or Yahuu) reminds me to change my account password every couple of months.
Good Hunting... from Varmint Al
Good Hunting... from Varmint Al
Go here. Safe. You’ll find out which website or store was hacked and how your email got into the dark web scam list.
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