[SCAM OF THE WEEK] Sextortion Ransomware Attacks

The bad guys are getting more and more dangerous with scams.

They now send you an email that claims they have a video of you watching an inappropriate website, and that you can download that video and see it for yourself. But if you do, your computer gets infected with ransomware!

If any of this type of emails make it through the spam filters, please be cautious and make sure you know who sent you the email, is it legit etc... Think Before You Click! Delete it from your inbox and at the same time alert IT about this scam.

Please alert others and circulate in your organization.

TEA Help Desk
(201) 226-9333

A sample image of a sextortion email is below. How it worked:

The scammers claimed to have a video of the user pleasuring himself while visiting adult sites, and they urged the user to access the link and see for himself. But instead of a video, users received a ZIP file with a set of malicious files inside.

Users who downloaded and ran these files would be infected by the AZORult malware, which would immediately download and install the GandCrab ransomware. Even if the user had no intention of paying the sextortion demand, curious users would still end up being held for ransom if they were careless enough to follow the link and ran the files they received.