Authorities warn of ‘massive’ email scam
- Posted on June 25, 2022
The scam has been under investigation since the summer of 2018, but hundreds of cases have been reported in recent weeks.
“I am the hacker who broke into your device”, “500 euros is the price”: More than 10,000 people have reported this threatening email to the Central Office for Combating Crimes Related to Information Technology and Communications (OCLCTIC) since January. OCLCTIC boss François-Xavier Masson said the massive scam attempt was harmless if it didn’t get a response, but he was concerned about the magnitude of the phenomenon.
The message is sent to the user’s e-mail. “I intercepted your password”, “You visited a porn site”, “500 euros is a fair price for our little secret”: in his message, the pseudo-hacker then offers a “in 48 Address “hours” paid in bitcoins during the day, otherwise it will send the recording to “all your contacts”.
Prevention advice
“We’ve been dealing with this scam since the summer of 2018, but we’ve had hundreds of calls in recent weeks and it’s a really active mass campaign that affects everyone,” Mr Masson worries. “We never pay,” he insisted.
“We don’t reply to emails, we use email addresses and bitcoin addresses to report on Pharos [a platform used by the Ministry of Home Affairs to track illegal content circulating on the internet]”, advises the boss of OCLCTIC. It is also recommended to check your passwords and change them.
The scam has been under investigation since the summer of 2018, but hundreds of cases have been reported in recent weeks.