The scary, not to mention downright scary if you are on the receiving end, Hello Pervert email extortion attacks are back again. This time, the financial demands have increased to $1650, or the self-proclaimed hacking God warns, your dirty secrets will be exposed.
I’m Some Kіnd Of God Who Sees Everythіng
The use of fear, combined with a sense of urgency, is the staple diet of the social engineer. This is most commonly seen when on the receiving end of a phishing attack, with your account password or bank details being the ultimate target. But what if the threat actor doesn’t want either, going straight for the cash payout? That’s what the scum bags, and there is no nicer way of describing them, behind the Hello Pervert sextortion campaign do. And they do it in the most heinous of ways, by claiming to know where you live, to have hacked all of your devices, and to have evidence of you indulging in intimate activity.
The Hello Pervert threat has evolved multiple times, with a recent iteration adding a particularly frightening claim: the attacker not only knows where you live but also has screenshots of your home to prove it. Of course, as with everything involved in this sextortion scam, that’s a lie. All the so-called hacker has are images taken from Google Maps, obtained by accessing your address through social media or other online sources. The latest lie to emerge in the current Hello Pervert campaign was spotted by a senior malware intelligence analyst with Malwarebytes, Pieter Arntz. “I’m some kіnd of God who sees everythіng,” the sextortion email claims, continuing that “God іs mercіful and forgіvіng.” The stinger comes as the attacker adds that “my merсy іs not free.”
The cost of the attacker not releasing those intimate videos, that don’t exist, to your friends and family has now reached $1,650, according to the latest emails, up from $1,200 in April and $1,450 in May.
Don’t Pay The Hello Pervert ‘Hacking God’ — Here Are 5 Things You Should Do
Obviously, you should not pay these scumbags anything. Not least as the entire attack is just a lie: they have not hacked your devices, and if they do include a password as evidence, then it is one that has been found in databases of compromised credentials, and have no images or videos. They are not watching you. Pieter Arntz recommends that anyone who has got a Hello Pervert email should do the following:
- First and foremost, never reply to emails of this kind.
- Don’t let yourself get rushed into action or decisions.
- Do not open unsolicited attachments.
- If the email includes a password, make sure you are not using it anymore, and if you are, change it as soon as possible.
- Turn off your webcam or buy a webcam cover so you can cover it when you’re not using the webcam.
Remember, these Hello Pervert attacks are not being executed by a hacking God, far from it. These are chancers and scammers, nothing more. If they really had the kind of hacking skills they claim, then they wouldn’t be wasting their time carpet-bombing email inboxes with these sad and disgraceful attempts to shake money from the pockets of vulnerable people. I cannot say it often enough: they do not have any images of you, it is a scam, do not allow these attackers to cause you anxiety. Take a deep breath, count to ten, and carry on with your day.
