Dirty Secrets Of Your Life Email Scam
Written by Tomas Meskauskas on (updated)
What is "Dirty secrets of your life"?
"Dirty secrets of your life" is just one of many spam email campaigns used by scammers who threaten people by claiming that they have obtained compromising material, which they will proliferate unless ransoms are paid. In fact, this is a scam. Emails sent by spam campaigns should never be trusted.
Scammers behind the "Dirty secrets of your life" campaign claim that they have obtained material that they can (and will) use against recipients of this email. They do not reveal the exact details of what they have obtained, however, they claim that they have important passwords.
If $8000 (in Bitcoins) is not be paid within 44 hours, they will use the information to cause unspecified problems. If the payment is made, they will delete everything (passwords and other supposedly stolen data) and will not do any harm. As mentioned in our introduction, this is a typical scam and all claims are false.
Scammers send these emails to many people in the hope that some will fall for the scam and transfer the ransom payment in a cryptocurrency. This spam campaign may seem more believable, since they use the 'spoofing' method to falsify the sender's email address.
I.e. it may appear that the sender is actually the recipient as well, or that the email was received from some other account. If you received this (or another similar) email, we recommend that you simply ignore it.
| Name | Dirty Secrets Of Your Life Email Scam |
| Threat Type | Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud |
| Symptoms | Unauthorized online purchases, changed online account passwords, identity theft, illegal access of one's computer. |
| Distribution methods | Deceptive emails, rogue online pop-up ads, search engine poisoning techniques, misspelled domains. |
| Damage | Loss of sensitive private information, monetary loss, identity theft. |
| Malware Removal (Windows) | To eliminate possible malware infections, scan your computer with legitimate antivirus software. Our security researchers recommend using Combo Cleaner. |
The number spam campaigns is countless and growing daily. Some examples of other similar spam campaigns are You Can Visit The Police Station, Important For Your Sake, and Hello, Sacrifice. This Is My Last Warning!!!. On closer inspection, they are all very similar.
Scammers use these campaigns to trick people into pay a ransom to prevent distribution of compromising material (that does not actually exist). Another type of spam campaign is used to proliferate malicious attachments. Scammers attach malicious Microsoft Office documents, archive files, PDF files, executables and present them as legitimate attachments.
The purpose is to trick people into opening them, which then results in download and installation of viruses (such as Adwind, TrickBot, Emotet, AZORult, etc). Infections that are proliferated through malicious attachments usually steal data such as logins, passwords, banking details, and so on.
Having a computer infected with viruses of this type might lead to problems relating to privacy, security, finances, and others. These infections often open "backdoors" for other viruses, such as ransomware.
We receive a great deal of feedback from concerned users about this scam email. Here is the most popular question we receive:
Q: Hi pcrisk.com team, I received an email stating that my computer was hacked and they have a video of me. Now they are asking for a ransom in Bitcoins. I think this must be true because they listed my real name and password in the email. What should I do?
A: Do not worry about this email. Neither hackers nor cyber criminals have infiltrated/hacked your computer and there is no video of you watching pornography. Simply ignore the message and do not send any Bitcoins. Your email, name, and password was probably stolen from a compromised website such as Yahoo (these website breaches are common). If you are concerned, you can check if your accounts have been compromised by visiting haveibeenpwned website.
How do spam campaigns infect computers?
Generally, spam email campaigns cause computer infections only when the presented attachments are opened. If the attached file is a Microsoft Office document, it will request permission to enable macros commands. Giving permission will download and install viruses.
In other cases, for example, if the attached file is an archive file, it must be extracted, and executable files must be executed, etc. In summary, viruses cannot proliferate without permission having first been given by users in some way - i.e. these infections must be triggered manually.
How to avoid installation of malware?
Carefully analyze each email that is delivered with an attachment. If the attached file seems irrelevant or has been received from a suspicious email address, do not open it. The same applies to links in emails or attachments. Avoid using third party downloaders, installers, and other similar sources to download or install software.
These tools often are monetized by promoting rogue applications. Install and download software with care, and check all available "Custom", "Advanced" settings/options, and other similar settings of the set-ups. Deselect offers to install unwanted software and only then finish the download or installation.
Update your software via implemented functions or tools provided by official software developers only. Using unofficial/fake updaters can result in installation of malware rather than the updates. Use Microsoft Office 2010 or later, since newer versions include "Protected View" mode that can prevent downloaded malicious attachments from installing/downloading infections.
If you have already opened malicious attachments, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate infiltrated malware.
Text presented in the "Dirty secrets of your life" email message:
Subject: info - user's password
Hello, I actually came to know the dirty secrets of your life. I won't tell you what I'm aware of, I have all the details with me. To show my point, let me reveal you that one of your security passwords is [user's password]. Pay me $8000 via BITC01N to the address 1ANEghVADmM53RToft67EEvM8AXwyed6jo in the next 44 hours. Allow me to make one thing precise, that I will mess up your life entirely if I don't get the payment. However, if I do get the payment, I'll erase each information I have with me, and I will go away and you will definitely do not hear a thing from me. This is the first as well as final e mail from me as well as the offer is non negotiable, hence do not respond to this mail.
Instant automatic malware removal:
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Quick menu:
- What is Dirty Secrets Of Your Life spam?
- Types of malicious emails.
- How to spot a malicious email?
- What to do if you fell for an email scam?
Types of malicious emails:
Phishing Emails
Most commonly, cybercriminals use deceptive emails to trick Internet users into giving away their sensitive private information, for example, login information for various online services, email accounts, or online banking information.
Such attacks are called phishing. In a phishing attack, cybercriminals usually send an email message with some popular service logo (for example, Microsoft, DHL, Amazon, Netflix), create urgency (wrong shipping address, expired password, etc.), and place a link which they hope their potential victims will click on.
After clicking the link presented in such email message, victims are redirected to a fake website that looks identical or extremely similar to the original one. Victims are then asked to enter their password, credit card details, or some other information that gets stolen by cybercriminals.
Emails with Malicious Attachments
Another popular attack vector is email spam with malicious attachments that infect users' computers with malware. Malicious attachments usually carry trojans that are capable of stealing passwords, banking information, and other sensitive information.
In such attacks, cybercriminals' main goal is to trick their potential victims into opening an infected email attachment. To achieve this goal, email messages usually talk about recently received invoices, faxes, or voice messages.
If a potential victim falls for the lure and opens the attachment, their computers get infected, and cybercriminals can collect a lot of sensitive information.
While it's a more complicated method to steal personal information (spam filters and antivirus programs usually detect such attempts), if successful, cybercriminals can get a much wider array of data and can collect information for a long period of time.
Sextortion Emails
This is a type of phishing. In this case, users receive an email claiming that a cybercriminal could access the webcam of the potential victim and has a video recording of one's masturbation.
To get rid of the video, victims are asked to pay a ransom (usually using Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency). Nevertheless, all of these claims are false - users who receive such emails should ignore and delete them.
How to spot a malicious email?
While cyber criminals try to make their lure emails look trustworthy, here are some things that you should look for when trying to spot a phishing email:
- Check the sender's ("from") email address: Hover your mouse over the "from" address and check if it's legitimate. For example, if you received an email from Microsoft, be sure to check if the email address is @microsoft.com and not something suspicious like @m1crosoft.com, @microsfot.com, @account-security-noreply.com, etc.
- Check for generic greetings: If the greeting in the email is "Dear user", "Dear @youremail.com", "Dear valued customer", this should raise suspiciousness. Most commonly, companies call you by your name. Lack of this information could signal a phishing attempt.
- Check the links in the email: Hover your mouse over the link presented in the email, if the link that appears seems suspicious, don't click it. For example, if you received an email from Microsoft and the link in the email shows that it will go to firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0... you shouldn't trust it. It's best not to click any links in the emails but to visit the company website that sent you the email in the first place.
- Don't blindly trust email attachments: Most commonly, legitimate companies will ask you to log in to their website and to view any documents there; if you received an email with an attachment, it's a good idea to scan it with an antivirus application. Infected email attachments are a common attack vector used by cybercriminals.
To minimise the risk of opening phishing and malicious emails we recommend using Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows.
Example of a spam email:
What to do if you fell for an email scam?
- If you clicked on a link in a phishing email and entered your password - be sure to change your password as soon as possible. Usually, cybercriminals collect stolen credentials and then sell them to other groups that use them for malicious purposes. If you change your password in a timely manner, there's a chance that criminals won't have enough time to do any damage.
- If you entered your credit card information - contact your bank as soon as possible and explain the situation. There's a good chance that you will need to cancel your compromised credit card and get a new one.
- If you see any signs of identity theft - you should immediately contact the Federal Trade Commission. This institution will collect information about your situation and create a personal recovery plan.
- If you opened a malicious attachment - your computer is probably infected, you should scan it with a reputable antivirus application. For this purpose, we recommend using Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows.
- Help other Internet users - report phishing emails to Anti-Phishing Working Group, FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, National Fraud Information Center and U.S. Department of Justice.
Outstanding!
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