Member Of An International Hacker Group Email Scam

What is "Member of an international hacker group"?

"Member of an international hacker group" is a scam that criminals proliferate through a spam email campaign. Scammers make threats about having obtained compromising videos that will be sent to the recipient's contacts if their ransom demands are not met. This is a typical scam and it should not be trusted or taken seriously.

The "Member of an international hacker group" email states that members of an international hacker group have hacked the user's email account and planted a virus into the operating system. According to the scammers behind this email, this infection happened while the recipient was visiting an adult website.

They claim that this virus infection gave them access to the user's messages, social media accounts, and messengers and they have also stolen data. The scammers also claim that they have used the webcam and recorded a compromising video.

If the recipient fails to pay $735 in Bitcoins, they will apparently send this video to all contacts (friends, family, relatives, and so on) and lock the computer. A deadline of 48 hours is given to meet their demands. Following payment (via a transfer), they state that they will delete the video and other stolen data.

Do not trust messages from the "Member of an international hacker group" campaign (and other similar campaigns). All claims are bogus - scammers send this email to many people and hope that some will fall for their scam. Simply delete this email and ignore any similar ones in the future.

The criminals who send these deceptive emails use the so-called "spoofing" technique. This method allows them to falsify sender details, so it appears that the recipient of the email is also the sender.

Threat Summary:

Name	Member Of An International Hacker Group 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. ▼ Download Combo Cleaner To use full-featured product, you have to purchase a license for Combo Cleaner. 7 days free trial available. Combo Cleaner is owned and operated by Rcs Lt, the parent company of PCRisk.com read more.

There are many other similar spam campaigns, such as Dirty Secrets Of Your Life, You Can Visit The Police Station, Important For Your Sake, and so on. These are used to extort money from innocent users by making threats to proliferate humiliating material.

Other scam campaigns are used to infect computers through email attachments. These are usually Microsoft Office documents, PDF files, executables, archive files, and so on. The purpose of these scam campaigns is to trick people into downloading and opening attachments that infiltrate computers with various infections such as Adwind, TrickBot, Emotet, and AZORult.

These viruses allow cyber criminals to steal data such as logins, passwords, banking details, etc. This can lead to problems relating to privacy, browsing safety, finance, and so on. Some of these infections might open "backdoors" for other viruses to infiltrate (for example, 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?

Typically, spam email campaigns can harm/infect systems only when the presented attachments are opened. The following are some examples how these malicious attachments work. If the attachment is a Microsoft Office document, the user is asked for permission to enable macros commands.

Enabling these commands allow viruses to be downloaded and installed. In other cases, if the attached file is an archive file, it must be extracted. Executable (.exe) files must be executed, and so on. In all cases, infections cannot proliferate without users first giving permission.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Do not open email attachments (or web links) without first studying the emails. If the attached file (or link) seems irrelevant or has been received from a suspicious email address, do not open it. Avoid using third party downloaders, installers, and other similar sources to download/install software.

These tools might be used to proliferate rogue apps or computer infections. Install and download software with care, and check all available "Custom", "Advanced" and other similar settings/options of the installation/download set-ups. Opt-out of offers to install unwanted apps and only then finish the download/installation process.

Update software using implemented functions (or tools) provided by official software developers only. Unofficial software updaters often lead to download and installation of malware, rather than the promised updates. Use Microsoft Office 2010 or later - newer versions include "Protected View" mode.

This feature can prevent installation/download of malware proliferated through malicious MS Office documents. 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 "Member of an international hacker group" email message:

Threat to your security! [email-address] has been compromised.

Hello!

I'm a member of an international hacker group.

As you could probably have guessed, your account [email-address] was hacked, because as I messaged you from your account.
On moment of infection [email-address] was this password: [password]

Within a period from August 20, 2018 to November 14, 2018, you were infected by the virus we've created, through an adult website you've visited.
So far, we have access to your messages, social media accounts, and messengers.
Moreover, we've gotten full dumps of these data.

We are aware of your little and big secrets...yeah, you do have that. We saw and recorded your doings on porn websites.
Your tastes are so weird, you know..

But the key thing is that sometimes we recorded you with your webcam, syncing the recordings with what you watched!
I think you are not interested show this video to your friends, relatives, and your intimate one...

Transfer $735 to my Bitcoin wallet: 1HRnCZDJ1coQG31Rni6xNyAoQwzfhndLt1
I guarantee that after that, we'll erase all your "data"!

A timer will start once you read this message. You have 48 hours to pay the above-mentioned amount.

Your data will be erased once the money are transferred.
If you do not pay, all dumps of your messages and videos recorded will be automatically sent to all your contacts found on your devices for this moment.
Also, the operating system of your device will be suspended.

You should always think about your security. We hope this case will teach you to keep your secrets.

Bye!

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Quick menu:

• What is Member Of An International Hacker Group 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.

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