Scammers take emails hostage

Posted by multippt

A hotmail user returns home and accesses his email account, only to find that the account was flushed clean, except for a single email that demanded payment for the return of all email messages and all contacts in the address book. The email was written (poorly) in spanish. The affected user previously accessed the account from a cyber-cafe.

While there are (rare) multiple cases of cyberextortion, this is taking things to a new level. Previous cases of cyber extortion includes malicious acts on one’s data, which include the execution of malicious software (sometimes known as “ransomware”) that may encrypt the contents of certain private files. They would then request “payment” to decrypt the files, and if the victim refuses to pay, the files would be deleted.

With the internet becoming more popular for phishers and even scammers, one must take precautions in protecting their private information, especially their password.