Note: If you received a message with the subject line “Waiting for the payment” that appears to be sent from your own @pugetsound.edu address, you can simply ignore and delete the email. Technology Services has confirmed that the email addresses were spoofed which indicates that your account is not compromised. Please know that similar messages are fraudulent extortion scams.
Original Phishing Message
Tips for Detection
- If you see the “Caution” banner prepended to a message, always be wary. Since the banner is usually only applied to messages coming from outside Puget Sound, that is an indication that your email address may have been “spoofed.”
- These types of extortion scams generally contain empty threats. The claims that they have access to your computer, access to your contacts, have compromising information on you, or have knowledge of who you forward the email to are all false claims.
- You can always check with the Service Desk if you have any questions or concerns about the legitimacy of an email or the security of your account.
- For more information about this type of phishing email, MalwareBytes has an informative article concerning this: https://blog.malwarebytes.com/malwarebytes-news/2020/05/what-to-do-when-you-receive-an-extortion-e-mail/.
Text of Phishing Message
Subject: Waiting for the payment.
Hello!
Have you recently noticed that I have e-mailed you from your account?
Yes, this simply means that I have total access to your device.
For the last couple of months, I have been watching you.
Still wondering how is that possible? Well, you have been infected with malware originating from an adult website that you visited. You may not be familiar with this, but I will try explaining it to you.
With help of the Trojan Virus, I have complete access to a PC or any other device.
This simply means I can see you at any time I wish to on your screen by simply turning on your camera and microphone, without you even noticing it. In addition, I have also got access to your contacts list and all your correspondence.
You may be asking yourself, “But my PC has an active antivirus, how is this even possible? Why didn’t I receive any notification?” Well, the answer is simple: my malware uses drivers, where I update the signatures every four hours, making it undetectable, and hence keeping your antivirus silent.
I have a video of you wanking on the left screen, and on the right screen – the video you were watching while masturbating.
Wondering how bad could this get? With just a single click of my mouse, this video can be sent to all your social networks, and e-mail contacts.
I can also share access to all your e-mail correspondence and messengers that you use.
All you have to do to prevent this from happening is – transfer bitcoins worth $1450 (USD) to my Bitcoin address (if you have no idea how to do this, you can open your browser and simply search: “Buy Bitcoin”).
My bitcoin address (BTC Wallet) is: 1A2BsswHPrE2RvUusSQY4w53P1WjuUdpbN
After receiving a confirmation of your payment, I will delete the video right away, and that’s it, you will never hear from me again.
You have 2 days (48 hours) to complete this transaction.
Once you open this e-mail, I will receive a notification, and my timer will start ticking.
Any attempt to file a complaint will not result in anything, since this e-mail cannot be traced back, same as my bitcoin id.
I have been working on this for a very long time by now; I do not give any chance for a mistake.
If, by any chance I find out that you have shared this message with anybody else, I will broadcast your video as mentioned above.