Your Computer, Email And Smartphone Are Hacked Email Scam

What is "Your computer, email and smartphone are hacked"?

"Your computer, email and smartphone are hacked" is a typical scam that is proliferated through emails.

Typically, scammers use this technique to extort money from unsuspecting people by threatening to expose compromising photos or videos of them . Do not trust spam campaigns such as "Your computer, email and smartphone are hacked". When received, the associated emails should be ignored and deleted.

Using this email message, scammers try to trick recipients into believing that their computers and smartphones are hacked. They state that they have stolen all photos, chats, and other details used to access bank accounts. They threaten to proliferate these details across the Internet unless a ransom of one Bitcoin is paid by 3rd July.

They also provide the address of a Bitcoin wallet for payment. As mentioned, this is merely a scam and should be ignored. Scammers send these emails to hundreds of people hoping that at least some will fall for the scam. Unfortunately, sometimes they succeed.

Threat Summary:

Name	Your computer, email and smartphone are hacked
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud
Fake Claim	Criminals claim that they have hacked the recipient's computer, email, and smartphone and have duplicated all photos. They also threaten to share the photos with the victim's contacts unless a ransom is paid.
Cyber Criminal Cryptowallet Address	1LNcUGLunEpDMo4sxNAgAKAGk8eAddTGW (Bitcoin) - the wallet address may vary depending on scam's variant.
Size Of Ransom	1 Bitcoin (the cost might vary depending on the scam variant).
Symptoms	Unauthorized online purchases, changed online account passwords, identity theft, illegal access of computers.
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.

Other examples of similar scams are "Hosting and domain will be blocked", "CVE-2019-1663", and "Placed a malware on the xxx streaming site". All of these scams are used to extort money from unsuspecting users by threatening to proliferate humiliating photos or other data/details. Many scams are used in this way to proliferate malware.

Scammers send emails that contain malicious attachments that, if opened, install computer infections such as LokiBot, TrickBot, Emotet, AZORult, Adwind, or other high-risk malware.

Generally, they try to trick people into installing programs that cause financial/data loss, various privacy/browsing safety problems, and so on. Some of the distributed malicious programs might proliferate other programs of this kind such as ransomware.

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Scams that cyber criminals (scammers) proliferate via email can cause damage only when the files or web links in those emails are opened.

They send emails with attachments such as Microsoft Office or PDF documents, JavaScript, executables (.exe or other) or archive files, and so on. Their main goal is to trick people into opening the files, which then start downloading/installing other high-risk computer infections.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Do not open attachments in emails that are sent from unknown, suspicious addresses. Especially if the emails are irrelevant (even if presented as official and important). Download all software from official and trustworthy websites and using direct links.

Avoid downloading with third party software downloaders, Peer-to-peer networks such as and torrent clients, eMule and other dubious sources of this kind. Do not update installed software or operating systems using some unofficial updaters. The safest way to update software is with tools that are provided by official software developers.

Activate installed programs properly and do not use software 'cracking' tools - these are illegal and often lead to computer infections with high-risk malware.

Have reputable anti-virus or anti-spyware software installed and enabled at all times. Without these programs, computers are vulnerable. 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 "Your computer, email and smartphone are hacked" email message:

Subject: Your computer and smartphone are hacked

Your computer, email and smartphone are hacked. We have all your photos, personal correspondence and access to bank accounts.
On June 3, we will post on the Internet and send to all people who you have in contacts and social networks all your photos, correspondence, access to bank accounts and payment systems.
You will be sued and the police will be interested in your person.
A ransom is worth 1 Bitcoin.
Pay 1 BTC until June 3 to our bitcoin wallet: 1LNcUGLunEpDMo4sxNAgAKAGk8eAddTGW

Instant automatic malware removal: Manual threat removal might be a lengthy and complicated process that requires advanced IT skills. Combo Cleaner is a professional automatic malware removal tool that is recommended to get rid of malware. Download it by clicking the button below:
▼ DOWNLOAD Combo Cleaner By downloading any software listed on this website you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. 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.

Quick menu:

• What is Your Computer, Email And Smartphone Are Hacked 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.

▼ Show Discussion