What is “Porn Websites I Attacked With My Virus Xploit” sextortion scam

“Porn Websites I Attacked With My Virus Xploit” sextortion scam refers to an email scam that threatens to release private videos of users if payment is not made. While it may seem like an alarming email at first, it’s nothing more than a scam. All claims made in the email by the scammers are false. There is no video, nor are users’ computers infected with malware that gives its operators complete access.

 

 

“Confidential message for you: recently you visited one of the porn websites that I attacked with my Virus Xploit” is how this particular sextortion email scam starts. It has an eye-catching subject line saying “my virus recorded you masturbating!”, so even if the email lands in the spam folder, users who check it may be curious/alarmed enough to open and read the email.

As far as sextortion scam emails go, this is a pretty standard one. It follows the usual pattern, though it does request a larger payment than usual. The email first explains to users that when they visited some pornography website, a virus was downloaded to their computers. The virus supposedly gave the operator complete access to the computer, which allowed them to turn on the camera.

The sender then further tries to alarm users by claiming that the virus was able to record users while they were watching pornography. “While my virus is not perfect it managed to record 6 videos clearly showing you masturbating” is what the email claims. The scammer also claims that they were able to steal all of the users’ contacts. If users refuse to pay the requested sum, the scammer threatens to post the videos publicly and send links to them to all contacts. The scammer demands a payment of $2,000 in bitcoin.

Scammers use various psychological tactics to essentially force users to pay the requested sum. They use various demeaning language to make users feel ashamed and intimidated, whether they have actually watched pornography or not. It’s not difficult to see why users who are not familiar with these types of scams can fall for them.

Subject: My Virus recorded you MASTURBATING!

Confidential message for you:

Recently you visited one of the porn websites I attacked with my Virus Xploit.

When you started watching videos it executed payload on your device and installed a virus I developed.

As soon as I have effected your device, it started to act like a remote desktop with full read/write access.

I gained access to your files, your email, contact lists and most importantly – your camera!
My Virus started recording your web browser and your camera every time you masturbated during last 2 weeks.

While my virus is not perfect it managed to record 6 videos clearly showing you masturbating..
Call me whatever you want, a criminal or a d**k, but this is just my job.
I do this on regular basis and I recorded hundreds of people, but you are SPECIAL.
Why? Because of the aberrant and perverse videos you were watching while masturbating – you know what I mean!

Now I am your master, and you are my slave..
Let me ask you a question.

How would you feel if I upload to pornhub all the videos with you masturbating and send the links to everyone on your contact lists –

including your family and business partners?

You don’t want me to do this, right ?
There is only one way you can stop me from exposing your fantasies. You have to pay.

Let me be straightforward with you.

You know what Bitcoin is, right?
Buy $2,000 USD worth of Bitcoin and send it to me immediately.

You can buy Bitcoin in many places like Coinbase, CoinMama, Binance..

Google for ‘how to buy cryptocurrencies’. You can use your credit card or bank transfer.
I am giving you 3 days to complete this payment, after which I will start uploading and sending your masturbation videos.

Just imagine your family and collegues reaction to those videos ??

Save your life now!

This is a classic example of a sextortion scam. If users receive this or a similar type of email, they can just ignore it. None of the claims are true. And the only reason they got such an email in the first place is that their email addresses have been leaked.

Some sextortion emails contain users’ passwords

These sextortion email campaigns may be operated by different scammers but they all operate the same way. They also acquire targets’ email addresses the same way, from hacker forums. Email addresses are leaked all the time by services with poor security. And once someone’s email address has been leaked, it will start appearing in many data dumps that get sold to cybercriminals. Users can check whether their email addresses have been leaked on haveibeenpwen. There’s not much they can do if results come out positive but they can at least be on their guard.

Some malicious actors go a step further and include users’ passwords in the sextortion emails. It’s an effective tactic to convince users that their computers do have a virus on them. Because in their minds, how else would the sender have their password? The answer to that is actually quite simple. Malicious actors get users’ passwords the same way they do email addresses, from hacker forums. Many services users use have inadequate security practices and do not properly secure users’ passwords. If such services are targeted by a cyberattack, passwords can end up in the hands of malicious actors along with other information. The information is then sold on hacker forums for other malicious actors to use.

If users receive a sextortion email that reveals their password, they need to change it immediately. Users should also keep in mind that passwords should be complex and difficult to guess. Ideally, they would be made up of random combinations of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. The passwords should also be unique to each account. If users have trouble keeping track of their passwords, they should use a password manager. The email itself can be deleted.