What is the “Final Warning” email scam

The “Final Warning” email falls into the sextortion scam category. The email is part of a recent sextortion scam campaign. The sender of the email claims that the recipient’s computer has been infected with malware, which gave them access to their computer and allowed them to create a video of the recipient watching pornography. The contents of the email are all false, so if you receive this email, you can ignore it.

 

 

The “Final Warning” email scam is just one of hundreds of sextortion scam emails that are currently going around. Different scammer groups operate these scams but they all more or less follow the same pattern, even if the contents are worded differently. The emails first try to catch users’ attention with alarming subject lines, then scare them with claims of malware on their devices, then proceed to shame them for their supposed pornography viewing habits, and finally threaten to release users’ supposed explicit videos.

This particular “Final Warning” email scam makes it seem like the sender tried contacting the recipient before and this email is supposedly the last warning for the recipient to act before it’s too late. The sender goes straight to the point and threatens to send the recipient’s explicit video to their friends and associates. The sender then explains that when the recipient visited a pornography website, their computer became infected with a serious malware infection, which allowed complete access to the device to the malware operator. The sender also claims that they were able to record a video of the recipient watching pornography. They threaten to release the video to all of the recipient’s contacts unless a payment of $2000 is made in Bitcoin.

The full contents of the “Final Warning” email scam is below:

FINAL WARNING – !

You have the last chance to save your social life – I am not kidding!!

I give you the last 72 hours to make the payment before I send the video with your masturbation to all your friends and associates.

The last time you visited a erotic website with young Teens, you downloaded and installed the software I developed.

My program has turned on your camera and recorded your act of Masturbation and the video you were masturbating to.
My software also downloaded all your email contact lists and a list of your Facebook friends.

I have both the – with your masturbation and a file with all your contacts on my hard drive.
You are very perverted!

If you want me to delete both files and keep your secret, you must send me Bitcoin payment. I give you the last 72 hours.
If you don’t know how to send Bitcoins, search Google.

Send 2000 USD to this Bitcoin address immediately:

3GrKu6euaMjz8FN9HZxgSxiZ7PtESKCPcu
(copy and paste)

1 BTC = 3850 USD right now, so send exactly 0.521780 BTC to the address above.

Do not try to cheat me!
As soon as you open this Email I will know you opened it.

This Bitcoin address is linked to you only, so I will know if you sent the correct amount.
When you pay in full, I will remove both files and deactivate my software.

If you don’t send the payment, I will send your masturbation video to ALL YOUR FRIENDS AND ASSOCIATES from your contact list I acquired.

Here are the payment details again:

Send 0.521780 BTC to this Bitcoin address:

—————————————-
3GrKu6euaMjz8FN9HZxgSxiZ7PtESKCPcu
—————————————-

You can visit the police but nobody will help you.
I know what I am doing.
I don’t live in your country and I know how to stay anonymous.

Don’t try to deceive me – I will know it immediately – my spy ware is recording all the websites you visit and all keys you press.
If you do – I will send this ugly recording to everyone you know, including your family.

Don’t cheat me! Don’t forget the shame and if you ignore this message your life will be ruined.

I am waiting for your Bitcoin payment.

Lavern
Anonymous Hacker

P.S. If you need more time to buy and send 0.521780 BTC, open your notepad and write ’48h plz’.
I will consider giving you another 48 hours before I release the vid, but only when I see you are really struggling to buy bitcoin.

While the email may seem alarming, it’s nothing more than a scam. Malicious actors like to use various scare tactics to pressure users into paying. In particular, scammers use demeaning language and try to shame users for their supposed pornography-viewing habits. Whether the recipient has watched pornography or not, this kind of email would cause stress. Particularly, even if there’s no explicit video of users, the thought that their contacts would receive a pornography video that’s associated with them may be enough to pressure some recipients into paying.

These emails a very common but if users have seen one, they have seen all of them because they’re all more or less identical to one another.

Why did you receive a sextortion scam email?

Unfortunately, if you received a sextortion email, it likely means your email address has been leaked. Personal information like email addresses is leaked constantly by companies with poor security. If a service does not secure users’ information properly, it could easily be stolen during a cyberattack.

Stolen email addresses are sold on hacker forums, where other malicious actors purchase them. If you suspect that your email address has been leaked, you can check on haveibeenpwned. Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do if it has been leaked. However, you can at least be cautious with unsolicited emails, especially if they contain attachments or links.

In an effort to appear more credible, some sextortion emails also reveal users’ passwords. That is an effective tactic because if users have never encountered sextortion scam emails before, they would be confused as to how the senders managed to obtain their passwords if not because of malware on their computers. While seeing a password you use may seem scary, there’s actually a simple explanation for how malicious actors obtained it. Passwords and other personal data like phone numbers are acquired by scammers much the same way as email addresses. They are bought from hacker forums. Email addresses are not the only data that is leaked by companies. If, for example, a service stores passwords in plain text, they can easily be stolen during a cyberattack.

It goes without saying that if an email reveals your password, you need to change it immediately on all accounts you use it for. Keep in mind that passwords have to be unique for each account.