Beware The Infected Account / Bitcoin Scam

If you’re reading this then you have no doubt received an email claiming that your email or computer is infected or compromised and that you must pay up before all your dirty secrets and videos of you on your webcam are exposed to all your friends and coworkers. When most people get this email they are immediately alarmed but it is just the latest internet scam. It’s known as the “This Account is Now Infected’ Fake Blackmail Sextortion Scam” and it spreading across the internet hoping to scam people into paying money to a Bitcoin address.

DO NOT WORRY… IT’S JUST A SCAM

The email will usually come from your own email address or someone at your company or organization with the same domain name (i.e. yourcomapny.com) making you think you have been compromised but this is simply a technique knowing as ‘spoofing’. The email will usually say your password is compromised along with your computer and will request you to send money to a Bitcoin address, usually $1000. Unless you specifically see your password in the email, you have no been compromised. In fact, the message in the email is usually an image and not actually text because they send these emails out to thousands if not millions of people at a time hoping that a few unlucky souls will fall for the scam.

Here is the current example of the email being sent:

Unless you actually see your password listed in the email, you have not been infected or compromised and should simply delete the email and advise all your coworkers to do the same.

Having said that, IF you get an email that does show any password that you use for anything on the web, you should absolutely contact your IT person and have them scan your pc for malware, keystroke loggers, etc.

You can also contact us and we will reset your email password.