Have We Been Hacked?

[E55BOF]

As the title. I just received an email from somebody who has my email address and password for this site, offering me the chance to pay $1000 in Bitcoin within 24 hours, to prevent him/her sending a webcam video, of me pleasuring myself while conducting personal quality control of adult material (Private Browsing reporting for duty, sir...), to all my contacts.

I could not possibly comment on whether I watch, or have ever watched, such material, but as I don't have a webcam, I invited him/her to indulge in the sin of Onan.

Has anybody else had the same email?

 

[MercedesDriver]

Have they sent you the email address and a password as a proof of their claim?
No, I haven’t received such an email.

 

[E55BOF]

They have. It may not be this site hacked, as it's a very old password that I was using five years ago when I joined, but I thought it best to let as many as possible of our members know. That is why I posted in General Discussion initially, mods.

 

[MercedesDriver]

They have.

Then change all your passwords immediately. Especially Bank ones, and social media accounts. Who knows how they got it and what else they have. Do some antivirus checks on your equipment.

 

[CowleyStJames]

Scammers are falsely claiming to have webcam footage of victims watching porn to make them pay up
Doing the rounds at the moment.
Change all passwords

 

[AltonAnt]

There are lists for sale on various sites of username/password pairs which this scammer has probably picked up given the age of the password they sent you.
I would ignore it TBH as it is a common tactic.

General security pointers:

• Use a different password on every site or at least on the sensitive ones
• Use two-factor where possible - Google authenticator, Yubikey etc
• Use a password manager such as LastPass to create random passwords

 

[GLK]

Anyone else got a PM from a new member with 0 posts?
I thought that was impossible?

 

[BTB 500]

I invited him/her to indulge in the sin of Onan.

I would avoid replying to any spam/scam email as it confirms your address is an actively used account.

 

[Scott_F]

If you pay today I'll settle for $500.

 

[french]

As the title. I just received an email from somebody who has my email address and password for this site, offering me the chance to pay $1000 in Bitcoin within 24 hours, to prevent him/her sending a webcam video, of me pleasuring myself while conducting personal quality control of adult material (Private Browsing reporting for duty, sir...), to all my contacts.

I could not possibly comment on whether I watch, or have ever watched, such material, but as I don't have a webcam, I invited him/her to indulge in the sin of Onan.

Has anybody else had the same email?

Blimey if I was able to do that I'd be proud...bit of a morale booster for me...

 

[KillerHERTZ]

Anyone else got a PM from a new member with 0 posts?
I thought that was impossible?

Its not a PM but an Email (appears like a PM).

We are going to disable this 'feature'.

 

[markjay]

The spammers have old lists of email accounts that have been hacked in the past, and they use the passwords as 'proof' that they have hacked you - but it's all automated spam (mail-merge).

Just ignore (assuming the password is indeed an old one - otherwise obviously change it). If the old password was still working, they would have used it....

 

[C43AMG]

Yes I have received such an email asking for $7000 Or they will tell my Mum

 

[wu56Shoozz]

Or how about a good Scottish "Hacking" like so..

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[GLK]

Its not a PM but an Email (appears like a PM).

We are going to disable this 'feature'.

Ah, thanks for explaining - I replied to the very generic post, complimenting "your car" with no details, etc, but now think it is probably best to remove that - I contacted admin/mod about it.

 

[E55BOF]

It was an email sent to my normal email address, not through this website. The password dates back to 2013, and the only website where it is still in use is this one.

 

[E55BOF]

To answer my own question, yes we have, and recently, it would seem. I've just been contacted by a new member, who only joined a few weeks ago, and he has had the same email.

 

[E55BOF]

If you pay today I'll settle for $500.

I'll swap you my footage of you for yours of me....

reminds me of primary school, really; "You show me yours and I'll show you mine".

 

[MancMike]

It was an email sent to my normal email address, not through this website. The password dates back to 2013, and the only website where it is still in use is this one.

It was, as Karl said.

Some forum software, mine included, has the ability to send an email to the member, instead of a PM.

So there’s two buttons. One sends a normal PM, the other sends you an email.

It uses your email address for your account as the recipient, and the subject as the subject, body as body.

What you receive in your email inbox, gmail, hotmail, etc looks like a regular email, but it was sent via the forum.

The guy doesn’t have your password, he’s talking bull and praying on the naive. (Not suggesting you are!)

Some will pay it, if he targets enough people.

The fact it looks like a genuine email sent to you (How did he get my email address, the forum doesn’t display it!) is a convincer that he’s actually got your details.

How would having your email address and password result in him having a video from your webcam anyway?!?

Good idea Karl, switch it off. I’m going to do the same I hadn’t considered this exploitation.

 

[GLK]

Errm, that's not what Karl was talking about - an option to send email to a member is used (from click on username, pick an action), and the message is then delivered as a PM (conversation) ...