Got a Ransom Mail?
Your password has been hacked

Sextortion scam knows your password | Don’t fall for it.

Don’t worry. We all get this kind of spam, and some get one; other get hundreds.

They all start almost the in same way…
“My nickname in darknet is something I hacked this mailbox more than six months ago.”

Very polite and thank you for introducing yourself 😊

Then it goes
“So, your PASSWORD from john.doe@example.com is “example-of-password.”

This is where the panic starts and your forehead start to sweat. Well, don’t sweat.

Neither your Email address and your Passwords are a particular secret anymore.

Why is that?
Well, if you have been following the news, you would know that the past 20 years or more, thousands and thousands of websites have been hacked.

Websites like Facebook, Yahoo, Google, eBay, Home Depot, Adobe, Adult friend, finder, etc.

In some cases, your email address and password are in public databases out there where you can look it up yourself or actually buy the database.

However, because your Email and a password are out there doesn’t mean that YOU or your computer are …. HACKED. It just means that your Email address and one of your passwords are out there.

It’s websites that somebody has had access to your computer.

They may be in possession of your email address and password from a particular site, and they can have fun with your info on that specific website if they want to, but that is also highly unlikely that they want to take time targeting you.

What do they want?
They want the money of cause and scare the shit out of you – That is why they mail you in the first place – However, DON’T gives them any money.

Don’t start buying Bitcoins or sending checks to weird places.

They would properly never even know the payment it’s from you.

What if I don’t pay?
The worst thing that will properly happen is that the Scammer won’t get paid, and you have saved some money – They might threaten you with:

“Otherwise, these files and history of visiting sites will get all your contacts from your device. Also, I’ll send everyone your contact access to your email and access logs; I have carefully saved it!”

No, they won’t as they don’t have it. Even if your password is from a “fun” website you like to engage in on a late night 😊

All they have is an email address and a password to a single account and most likely they don’t even know what website that is … they just got some info.

What should I do?
Trash it. Just trash the mail.

if you recognize the password and remember where you have used it, maybe it’s a good idea to change that password and stop using it for other logins.

A good idea is always to use password software where you can see which website you have used a particular password, but if you don’t, don’t worry.

But for the most part, just enjoy yourself and enjoy life. You will most likely receive lots of these emails on and off in the future, but please don’t sponsor criminals like these because if you do, they will only keep doing it and once you paid, they will never let you go.

and as most of these Ransom emails end up saying ….

“Good Luck”, we will say “Safe browsing and have fun”.

Check if your email has been compromised: https://haveibeenpwned.com/

If you have any questions, you are more than welcome to contact us and have a chat.

Regards
Your SPAMfighter team

Posted in Anti-spam, General, Hacking, Tips and Tricks |

faq_small-copy

We often meet with clients, network and friends. When the dialogue falls on work, then we often get asked the same few questions. Therefore we decided to write a short FAQ that answers these questions!
I hope you find it useful 🙂

People I don’t know say they are receiving SPAM mails from my email address
It is a well known problem through years.
It is properly not coming from you, but your email address can have been picked up somewhere public like a message board or hacked from a company where you have once registered.
There is little you can do and it will soon blow over again. Make sure that your have your Anti-virus installed and updated!

My customers and contacts are receiving SPAM from my email address
This is also a well known problem. This is a little worse, but it may not be your computer. One in your network of contacts may have had a virus that send them the whole contact list and now you are on it. For a while, you will properly see emails sent to or from you along with people you know. Make sure you have your Anti-Virus installed and updated

If you are in a company and you have network of computers and suspect that SPAM are being sent from in-house, please check the following below:
If you have double checked your own Anti-Spam product on your server and eliminated that possibility, please see the below tips that will properly solve your issue.

Configure your firewall
Ensure that only authorized users can send emails via your internal network. This is accomplished by creating a rule in your firewall to drop all outbound traffic on TCP port 25 (SMTP).

If you are hosting your mail server inside your internal network, ensure that you make an exception to the above rule to ensure that the mail server can still deliver on your behalf.

It is advisable to log dropped packets, so that you can identify any rogue computers on the network attempting to deliver mails directly.

Enable SMTP Authentication
Now that emails can only be delivered through your mail server, you must ensure that it will only rely emails on behalf of authenticated users.

Failure to do so will leave you exposed to abuse of the server, so it is important to get the configuration of the mail server right.

Protect your domain
Let everybody know who are trusted sender of emails for your domain. This can be accomplished using Sender Policy Framework (SPF):

You should create a SPF record stating that your mail server (and possibly any 3rd parties) are the only trusted senders for your domain.

Don’t hesitate to call us if you have any questions about Anti-Spam or Anti-Virus products for your Business or Personal clients.

On behalf of the SPAMfighter team

Jan Christiansen
CMO – SPAMfighter.com

Posted in Anti-spam, Tips and Tricks |

With the uptick in cybercrime in recent years, it is critical that we don’t lose sight of the simplest precaution we must take to protect ourselves – using strong passwords. We might think it’ll never happen to us, but the latest security breach at LinkedIn is a reminder that a strong password is our last line of defense when it comes to protecting our personal information from hackers.

password

Posted in Tips and Tricks | Tagged |

Credit Card PhishingFor over 4 years now, I’ve operated a popular message board about credit cards.

But during that entire time, I’ve never seen more complaints posted about credit card phishing scams than I have during the past year. Criminals are getting more crafty (and more bold) in how they attempt to steal your credit card information. What follows are five of the most common scams I hear about and how you can protect yourself against them.

Posted in Phishing | Tagged , , , , , , |

SLOW-PCfighter 2 logo

We recently released the new version of our registry cleaner SLOW-PCfighter with a discounted launch for some of our existing customers. We’re proud to say it went beyond our imagination.

Posted in Software |