What is “I Know That You Cheat On Your Partner” email scam

I Know That You Cheat On Your Partner email scam falls into the sextortion scam email category. The email threatens to expose users’ alleged affairs if they do not agree to send $580 in Bitcoin to one of the provided wallet addresses. The reason it’s considered to be a sextortion scam is that it threatens to expose a video of the alleged affair. But it’s nothing more than a scam that you can safely ignore.

 

 

Sextortion scams have become one of the most common scams nowadays, with many users receiving them on a regular basis. But they can all be ignored because they contain nothing more than empty threats.

In most cases, sextortion emails threaten to release videos of users watching pornography if they refuse to pay but this particular email threatens to expose users’ affairs. The scammers still threaten to release a video but the sextortion email itself is different. It follows a slightly different pattern than the usual sextortion emails. Unlike regular sextortion emails, this “I Know That You Cheat On Your Partner” email scam does not go into details, nor uses demeaning language. Instead, it simply claims that the sender has a video of users cheating on their partners and threatens to publicly release it if payment is not made.

This sextortion email demands $580 to be paid in Bitcoin, and the transactions are supposed to be made within the first 48 hours. We’ve checked whether any transactions have been made to the provided wallet addresses, and it appears that no one has fallen for the scam, at least not yet.

Subject: New payment !

Hello -!

For some time now, I have been watching you
I know that you cheat on your partner.Its not my business, but i could make you loose everything if you fail to follow my instructions

All you have to do to prevent this from happening is – transfer bitcoins worth $580 (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 addresses (USE ANY OF THE BTC Wallets) :

BTC : bc1quv2l07cec2pluq6qgpv95fu990mjlm7ljqksky

BTC: bc1q444vm07qcwqyd3ytrnmp2hyklc3kq97qlvgvxl

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.

You may be wondering how these scammers were able to get your email address. Some sextortion emails claim that it happens because they were able to hack users’ accounts. But in reality, scammers simply bought the email address from some hacker forum. Email addresses get leaked all the time, and when that happens, they end up on various hacker forums. Malicious actors buy these email addresses by the thousands and then use them for their malicious campaigns, whether it’s to spread malware, promote scams, or phish personal/sensitive information.

haveibeenpwned is a good tool to check whether your email address is part of any data breach. There’s not much you can do if it has been leaked, but you will at least know to be careful with unsolicited emails, especially ones that contain attachments and/or links. You should avoid clicking on links in emails and scan all email attachments with anti-virus software or VirusTotal before opening them. These are effective ways to prevent common malware infections.

Sextortion email scams sometimes reveal users’ passwords

Sextortion emails use various scare tactics to scare users into believing the email. An effective tactic is including users’ passwords. While this particular email does not do this, it’s worth mentioning in case you encounter this kind of email in the future.

The passwords are often included at the beginning of the email to catch users’ attention. Users, who are unfamiliar with these types of sextortion scams may panic when they see their password because in their mind, how else would the sender know the password if not because they hacked their email account/computer? But the answer to that is actually quite simple. Scammers and other malicious actors obtain users’ passwords the same way they do email addresses, from data breaches/leaks.

If your password appears in a sextortion email, that means the service for which you used the password was hacked at some point. It also means the service had very poor security measures and stored passwords in plaintext. When hackers steal information like passwords, they usually end up on a hacker forum. Other cybercriminals can then buy that information to use in their own malicious campaigns.

You can check whether a password you use has ever been part of a data leak/breach on haveibeenpwned. If a current password of yours has been leaked, you need to change it immediately. Keep in mind that passwords need to be complex and difficult to crack. Ideally, a password would be made up of a mixture of uppercase/lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. The more random a password is, the more time it would take to crack it. It may also be a good idea to use a password manager. These programs both generate strong passwords and store them safely.

I Know That You Cheat On Your Partner email scam removal

Scam emails like “I Know That You Cheat On Your Partner” are harmless as long as you don’t pay the requested sum of money. When you receive such an email, you can simply delete it and be done with it. Usually, these emails will land in the spam folder of your inbox so if you don’t check it, you might not even realize you get these types of emails.