What is the “You Are Now On The Radar Of An International Group Of Hackers” email?

“You Are Now On The Radar Of An International Group Of Hackers” is a sextortion scam, part of a recent scam campaign. The contents of the email are completely fake.

 

 

This “You Are Now On The Radar Of An International Group Of Hackers” email falls into the sextortion scam email campaign classification because it threatens to release nonexistent private videos of users watching pornography. It’s a completely fake email that uses various scare tactics to frighten users and pressure them into paying ridiculous sums of money for nothing.

Sextortion scam emails have become very common recently. So common that most users whose email addresses have leaked will have received at least one such email. Sextortion email campaigns are operated by different scammers, all looking to make easy money. However, all sextortion emails follow the same pattern.

The email first tries to catch the recipient’s attention with the “For your own safety, I highly recommend reading this email” subject line. If users fall for it and open the email, they will be greeted with more threatening text like “You are in big trouble”. The whole email is written in a very threatening manner, using demeaning language to make the recipient feel ashamed. This is a very common tactic used by malicious actors and scammers because many users are susceptible to such tactics, even if they have never done anything remotely similar to what the email describes.

The sender of the email claims that they’re part of an international group of hackers and spends the majority of the email talking about how skilled their group of hackers are. It all sounds very fake but for users who are not aware of such sextortion scams, it may work to scare them further.

Supposedly, the “hacker” was able to install malware onto the recipient’s device, which allowed them access to the device’s camera and microphone. The sender proceeds to shame the recipient for their supposed pornography-viewing habits and claims that they were able to make a video of the recipient watching pornography. They threaten to release the video if the recipient does not agree to pay $1490 in Bitcoin.

Below is the full text of the “You Are Now On The Radar Of An International Group Of Hackers” email:

Subject: For your own safety, I highly recommend reading this email.

Hello,
You are in big trouble.
However, don’t panic right away. Listen to me first, because there is always a way out.

You are now on the radar of an international group of hackers, and such things never end well for anyone.
I’m sure you’ve heard of Anonymous. Well, compared to us, they are a bunch of schoolboys.
We are a worldwide network of several thousand professionals, each with their own role.

Someone hacks corporate and government networks, someone cooperates with intelligence agencies on the most delicate tasks,
and someone (including me) deals with people like you to maintain the infrastructure of our group.
“What kind of people like me?” – that is the question you are probably asking yourself now.

The answer is simple: people who like to watch highly controversial and, shall we say,
unconventional pornography on the internet that most normal people would consider perverted.
But not you!

In order to leave you without any doubts, I’ll explain how I found it out.
Two months ago, my colleagues and I installed spyware software on your computer and then gained access to all of your devices, including your phone.
It was easy – one of those many pop-ups on porn sites was our work.

I think you already understand that we would not write to an ordinary man who watches “vanilla” and even hardcore porn – there is nothing special about that.
But the things you’re watching are beyond good and evil.
So after accessing your phone and computer cameras, we recorded you masturbating to extremely controversial videos.
There is a close-up footage of you and a little square on the right with the videos you’re pleasing yourself.
However, as I said earlier, there is always a way out, because even the most degraded sinner deserves leniency.
You are lucky today because I am not a sadist who enjoys other people’s suffering.
Only money matters to me.

Here is your salvation: you must transfer $1490 in Bitcoin to this BTC cryptocurrency wallet: 13RuNi9xhDN5ngYy251h4WFDYoE3VA4kPJ

You have exactly 48 hours to make the payment, so think less, and do more.
As soon as I receive confirmation of the transaction, I will delete all compromising content and permanently disable our computer worm.
Believe me, I always abide by gentleman’s agreements. Even with people who are hardly gentlemen. Because it’s nothing personal, just business.

If I do not receive a payment, I will send all videos of you to every person in your contact list, messengers and email.
Relatives, loved ones, colleagues, friends-everyone you’ve ever been in contact with will receive them.
You understand perfectly well that you will never be able to wash this stain on your reputation.
Everyone will remember you as sick as fuck.
Your life will be completely ruined, and, most likely, only a tightened noose around your neck will be able to save the day.

If you haven’t dealt with crypto before, I suppose it won’t be difficult for you to figure it all out.
Simply type in the “crypto exchange” into the search bar and pay with a credit card. Besides, based on your browser history, you are a savvy user.

It goes without saying that the contents of the email are completely false. There is no malware on the device, and there’s certainly no video of users watching pornography.

How do sextortion scammers get users’ personal information?

When users receive sextortion scam emails, they may wonder how malicious actors are able to obtain their personal information like email address, and in some cases, a password they use. The answer is quite simple. Personal information is leaked all the time by services with inadequate security, and it ends up on various hacker forums. Cybercriminals buy this information from said hacker forums to use for their malicious purposes such as sextortion scams. Users can check whether their email addresses have been leaked on haveibeenpwned.