Criminals demand ransom by email for an alleged hack of the company’s server. Troy Hunt of HIBP also received such a letter.
Instead of laboriously attacking servers with ransomware and copying the data, scammers simply send emails claiming to have done so – and demand a ransom of $2,500 in Bitcoin.
Otherwise, the allegedly copied data would be published, according to the blackmail letter, which a journalist from the online magazine Bleepingcomputer and Troy Hunt, the operator of Have I Been Pwned, also received. The latter simply commented on Twitter with “You idiots” and a facepalm emoji.
According to the online magazine Bleepingcomputer, transactions have already been recorded on at least one of the two Bitcoin wallets used, which suggests that those affected are actually falling for the blackmail letters. The letters come from a blackmail group calling itself Team Montesano and are currently being sent to website owners and administrators worldwide.
Menacing writing, but not a hack
The ransom note is not lacking in pithy and threatening words. It opens with a request, written only in all caps, to forward the email to someone in the company who makes important decisions.
“You may have noticed that we are using your company’s server to send this message. We hacked into your https://www.***.*** website and extracted all your databases and all your mailboxes secured,” the email reads. All the data would now be on a hacked server.
An FAQ-style explanation is then given of how the alleged hack came about and what it means. The blackmailers also threaten to sell or publish the data. They also warn of the alleged consequences, such as damage to the reputation of the company concerned and landing on a spam blacklist.
“We are willing to forget about destroying the reputation of your website and your company for a small fee,” the blackmailers write, setting a deadline of 72 hours, apparently intended to urge victims to act quickly. This is all bullshit, of course: it’s simply a scam trying to trick people into paying $2,500.
