​Email Scam

Carol got an email recently, seemingly from her own email account, threatening to release a list of all the porn sites she visits, and pictures of her from her webcam. It seemed real to her, and she was a bit nervous about it.  (note from Carol, the list of all the porn sites I visit did not seem like a valid threat but I did feel that my computer could have been hacked) I downloaded and ran Malwarebytes, and it did indeed find a Trojan, something I almost NEVER see in a scan. I most often, by far, see PUPs, or Probably Unwanted Programs, which are mostly an annoyance rather than a threat. Malwarebytes Quarantined them and I then deleted them from Quarantine.

In this case, Carol sent notifications to her email provider, website host, and added some extra security. My impression is that it is actually more a phishing scam than an actual hack. However, better safe than sorry. Apparently, this type of scam has been getting more common, especially with the sex site listing threat. You can read an excellent article about this sort of thing  HERE.

You’ll notice he mentions it may even contain your password, though Carol’s email did not. Providing a password would certainly make the threat more serious, however, it still doesn’t mean your computer was hacked. Some server somewhere may have had a breach with your security info in it, and that may very well sound familiar as it happens ALL THE TIME. So, the typical things apply here: change your passwords, don’t use the same passwords across everything, and for goodness sake, use a password that’s at least somewhat complicated. The password “Password” is a LOUSY password.

Additional note from Carol: on many services, especially banking, two step verification is offered.   What this means is that after you put in your password there will be an additional step of entering a code sent to your cell phone, or answering a security question.  It's a pain but it adds another layer of security.  If you have Malwarebytes on your computer, update it and run it. Although there is a free version, we recommend the paid version as it runs in the background and protects you all the time.  I did not have this running on my computer but you better believe I do now.  Link to purchase on Amazon available on right.

For the Abiquiu News, in addition to SSL I've added a fire wall to the site itself to make sure it is safe for you to browse and download from.