What is the “You Are One Of A Kind” sextortion email

The “You Are One Of A Kind” email is a sextortion scam. It’s part of a scam campaign that’s currently going around, and it threatens to release users’ non-existent explicit videos unless they agree to pay $1280 in Bitcoin. The contents of the email are completely fake, and you can ignore the email if it lands in your inbox.

 

 

Whether they know it or not, most users will have received a sextortion email at least once as they’ve become very common. While all of them follow the same pattern and look more or less the same, the contents are written differently. These emails first try to alarm users as much as possible with threatening subject lines, and then proceed to cause more stress by claiming the recipients’ computers have malware on them, which supposedly allowed the sender to create an explicit video of the recipient watching pornography.

This particular “You Are One Of A Kind” sextortion email has a subject line of “I own very sensitive information about your web activities,” which is likely to alarm many users if they happen to see it. Fortunately, these emails usually land in the spam folder of the inbox, and users rarely check there. If users were to open this sextortion email, they would be greeted by threats of malware and explicit videos.

The sender claims to have infected the recipient’s computer with malware after they visited a pornographic website. The malware supposedly allowed the sender to monitor the recipient and their activities, which supposedly included visiting more pornography websites. The sender claims to have recorded the recipient watching pornography and supposedly made a video, the recipient on one side and the video they were watching on the other. They threaten to release this video if the recipient does not agree to pay $1280 in Bitcoin to the provided wallet address.

Below is the full text from “You Are One Of A Kind” sextortion email:

Subject: I own very sensitive information about your web activities

Greetings!

First of all, let me tell you, you are one of a kind!
It is hard to impress me because I have seen a lot in my career as a professional hacker but now I am really impressed.

I will get straight to the point. Listen to me carefully.

Several months ago,
I was able to hack your operating system and gain full access to all your devices and accounts including messengers, social media profiles, etc.

I hope, now you begin to get my message.
It goes without saying that I gained access to what you type via keylogger, your internet activity and webcam streaming.
All of this was possible due to your frequent visits to adult websites infected with harmful malware.
In other words, you were under my microscope for many days like some kind of a little bug.
The only difference is that unlike you there is no bug in the world who like to watch pervert porn.

Yes, you understand it right: I was able to see everything on your screen and record video and audio streams of your camera and microphone.
All of these records are currently securely saved on my storage as well as a backup copy.

In addition, I also gained access to your confidential information contained in your emails and chat messages.

Probably you are wondering why your antivirus and spyware defender software allowed me to do all of this?
I am sorry but it’s a very stupid question. All antivirus programs turned into useless shit quite a long time ago.
Have you ever heard last years about any “advanced” new technologies in this industry?
Exactly. Nowadays, developers do not give a flying f**k about your security. Therefore, hackers like me took advantage of it.

The more you know my friend, no need to thank me.
Maybe with this fresh knowledge, you will be more serious about your internet security and never take it for granted anymore.

With that out of the way, let’s cut to the chase. Using your recordings I made a video compilation,
which shows on the left side the controversial porn scenes of you happily masturbating to,
while on the right side it demonstrates the video you were watching at that moment.. ^.^

There are only 48 hours left since the moment you receive this email until I send this video to all your email and messenger contacts.
But there is more, guess what? I can also make public all your emails and chat history.

You are sick f**k in love with freaky adult content but you are not mentally re****ed so I would like to believe, you do not want to let this happen.
Right? Only the most stupid man in the world would be happy if his friends, loved ones and colleagues suddenly knew about something like this.

In other words, there is no way back. It cannot be fixed. However, there is a way forward that both of us can benefit from.
I am a reasonable guy and have no intention to ruin your life for nothing. I’d better like to gain something instead.

Here is your salvation – transfer the Bitcoin equivalent of 1280 USD to my Bitcoin account
(you can google the process in case you don’t know how to do that).

Here is my Bitcoin address: 16UqxYLX49MkFkgqsj1NcKiNVQMRCL8pnp

Once I am notified of receiving it, I will delete all those videos and disappear from your life for good.
As I mentioned, you have only 48 hours to make a transaction after you open this email.

Believe me, I am always one step ahead so no way in hell you could fool me.
If I discover that you shared this message with others, I will send and publish your videos in no time.

P.S. It’s in your power to make it nice for both of us.

For users unfamiliar with sextortion scams, this email may seem alarming. However, the contents are completely fake so paying anything to these scammers would be a waste of money. It’s not entirely unbelievable that some users would fall for it as malicious actors use various scare tactics to pressure users. They try to mock the recipient and shame them for their supposed pornography-watching habits. The threat of sending explicit videos even remotely associated with the recipient to their contacts also goes a long way to convince users.

Why did you receive a sextortion scam email?

Unfortunately, receiving a sextortion scam email likely means your email address has been leaked by some service you used. Email addresses and personal information are leaked by companies with poor security all the time. A lot of services have very poor security, which means a cyberattack often means stolen users’ data. 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.

To appear more credible, some scammers also add users’ passwords to sextortion scam emails. That is an effective tactic because if users have never seen a sextortion scam email 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 your password may cause alarm, there’s actually a simple explanation for how malicious actors were able to obtain it. Passwords and other personal data like phone numbers are acquired by scammers 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.