Email spoofing scams quickly spread on the internet. Scams manage to convince recipients that the sender has access to their computer. With access, the email spoofing scammers claim they’ve recorded them doing certain unsavory activities on their webcam.
How Does an Email Spoofing Scam Work?
The email scammers claim they’ve obtained their victim’s contact list. Then, if the victims don’t pay a ransom in Bitcoin within 48 hours, scammers threaten to send an incriminating video from their victim’s webcam to all contacts.
To make the recipient believe they’ve access to their computer, the email scammers send information that makes the spoofing email believable. It’s often an old password, numbers in their phone number, or the scam artists may send the email from the recipient’s own email address.
Previous passwords from email accounts are obtained from site hacks that are years old (this is why it’s a good idea to change your password every few months). Check if you’ve had your password leaked here: Has my password been leaked?
For example, a few numbers from a person’s phone number are easy to get. Sometimes the email spoofing scammers just click ‘forget password’ under your email address and a few numbers of your contact details are shown. I haven’t seen a full contact number disclosed in this situation, but I’m sure the scammers can also get full numbers by cross referencing public directories.
When the email scam makes it look like it’s come from your own address, this old technique is called spoofing. Faking email sender addresses is simple for guys who do email spoofing scams.
Summing Up Email Scams
All in all, I’ve yet to see a circumstance where the computer was actually infected from this email spoofing scam. Scammers never actually had any access to their victim’s computer or to their accounts.
To double check that your machine isn’t infected, do a free scan with Malwarebytes. Our free ebook describes in detail how to get into Malwarebytes and make your security more robust. Get the eBook here.
If you’ve any concerns after receiving an email like this or anything else tech related, we’re always available for a chat about further service.
Happy and safe computing!
