Hacked!!!!!

[TracyUK]

Hello ladies,
I have had my pc hacked and now they are trying to blackmail me.
They are asking $876 though this amount has changed twice, or they will
send details of my crossdressing to everyone on my contacts list.
Has this happened to any of you?
Hugs,
Tracy

[Robertacd]

Nope and $876 seems like a very small but exact amount... suspicious...?

[missjoann49]

I had something similar happen to me a few months ago, and I think it might have been for the same amount...just ignore it

[Micki_Finn]

Yeah, what are the odds that extortionists are going to live up to their end if you pay them? Not much.

[Stephanie47]

You must have opened an email with some MAL virus and infected your computer. There are sites on the Internet for instructions for removing these. Or you could take it down to a computer store to remove it. Usually, these people threaten to destroy your information. However, if they have found something you fear will negatively affect you if it were out, I suspect they feel you will be more readily to comply.

Was your anti-virus software up to date?

[giuseppina]

That specifically hasn't happened to me, Tracy, but I have had issues with attempted credit card fraud (the issuer caught it took appropriate measures before notifying me) and attempted telephone fraud. Chances are good the perpetrator is somewhere outside the country where you live.

It may be worth getting the local constabulary involved, but don't count on much happening.

You have plausible deniability that this is how the extortionists are blackmailing you.

Some general comments:
Maybe I'm paranoid, but I see email as a threat from a computer security perspective. I don't do any email or significant web browsing on my Windoze machines. My email is web based that does spam filtering before it gets to my computers.

Some browsers and search engines have mechanisms to detect unsafe websites. Firefox and Duckduckgo.com are among them.

Use a password generator like pwgen (Debian Linux, invoke in a terminal at the command line). Periodic changes are a good plan.

Windows 7 is the last Microsoft OS that does not include spyware. The only ways to run a subsequent Microsoft OS without fear of spying is disconnection from the internet or as a guest operating system under VirtualBox or equivalent software with a spyware-free underlying OS and VirtualBox network connections disabled.

Posting personal information of any kind at any privacy level on social media is asking for trouble. Sure, the provider may claim to have secure servers, but not posting is the only guaranteed way of keeping this information private.

Sorry to hear of your issues.

That's an interesting idea, Helen.

[Helen_Highwater]

Tracy,

Touch wood it's not happened to me. I am however very cautious with what I click on when online. I treat all emails with a link in it with the greatest of care and delete any that I have the slightest doubt over. If it's real they'll contact me again. That's not to say I'll believe it automatically if they do.

As Stephanie says, is your virus checker up to date? Whenever I turn on my PC the first thing I do is run an update on the virus software. Plus I regularly run a full scan to be on the safe side. If you haven't run a full scan, you should do so pronto. If it's a known bug then it should remove it or at least flag it up for attention.

Top tip; Add a nonsense email address to your address book, one you know will fail, i.e. notme@Hottttmale.com. If they should follow through with their threat then you'll get a message in your inbox of a failed delivery. You'll at least then have a heads up to potentially embarrassing questions.

[Beverley Sims]

Tracy,

Change your passwords, advise any bulletin board staff on boards you may have access to, your bank, utilities and anyone you may be in contact with.

Advise Tamara Croft here, she may also suggest a plan of action for here.

The last thing you want anywhere is spam or malicious postings which can get you banned from various sources.

[Meghan4now]

I wonder if you said "Just do it, I don't care" if they would. What exactly are they going to send out? Is it something you could basically deny, claim it is a false attack? Or if your contacts call you on it, just tell them that it is a private matter and this vicious attack is far worse than the fact you like to wear panties, as if that was anyone elses business.

We worry so much about being outed, but in the long run it is the truth and if friends can't handle it, that is their failure as a human.

[phili]

I would call your internet provider as they have good tools, and your email provider, and see what they can do and advise. They aren't in the business of outing customers but they are in the business of eradicating phishing scams . I'll bet they also say - unplug your computer and use a different one to log in and delete/remove everything from your cloud services, whereever you do store pictures.

My guess is that the right advice is to ignore the threat- as you do not want to send anything to them, or start a relationship with them, and they probably haven't even looked at your files, they just know you are a crossdresser or interested in it. The criminals also know that if they make good on their promise their risk of being identified and their exposure for criminal blackmail isn't going to be worth it.

But you do need all new email address and account and a clean computer.

I'm using google chrome now since in microsoft edge someone was tracking- the computer got slow and I would see my cursor highlighting words of my posts in sequence- reading essentially, as I was writing them.

[RADER]

I had something similar happen to me a few years back. There is an app for the US Government to turn these in and they get arrested.
I wish I had the site information, but Goggle Government phone scam reporting.
Good luck.
Rader

[crystaltvco]

I second about your AV being updated.

What email got hacked? Invest in a password vault program like 1password or Dashlane. That can generate and store complex passwords across devices ASAP!!

[Bobbi46]

I had similay just a couple days ago asking for a ransom to paid in Bitcoins to a specified account otherwise my PC would be infected with an aotomatic virus, I ignored the message and nothing happened, I would report the message to your ISP they should have the tools to find where it came from.

- - - Updated - - -

Philli, If someone was tracking as you typed Edge was not totally responsible its more than likely that some form of Malware has been installed in your system creating this ability to track your keyboard, I would strongly advise you to get a thorough virus check and clean up done on your computer, you're not out of the woods yet.

[Suzie Petersen]

Tracy,
There are several scams going around that sounds like what you describe.
While it is possible your computer or email account was in fact hacked, it may not actually be that bad.
Here is what it usually looks like:
The email appear to come from your own email account.
The perp requires payment in BitCoin. Every time you hear from them the BitCoin account is different and the amount changes. They tell you that you are not their only target so if you just pay up they will leave you alone.
The email is in somewhat wobbly english, decent but not perfect.
They show you that they know part of a password or passphrase you use.
They claim to have downloaded compromising video of you from your webcam or harddisk and they will send it to your entire email contact list which they have also downloaded.
They claim to have installed a virus on your device so they will know if you change your passwordd.

This can feel very scary, but chances are good that it is only empty threats!

There are easy ways to make it look like the email came from your own account, it does not nessecarily mean you were hacked. But, change your password(s) anyway, just in case.
There are reports all the time of huge numbers of customer accounts being hacked from companies and even government agencies. These lists often include your email address, some search words you have used, some passphrases etc etc. Perps get their hands on this and put enough information together to make you believe they actually hacked your computer or phone. How else could they know this, right? They send out thousands of these threat emails and there will be some who pay, making it worth their time.

The sad part is that there is not much you can do about it.
The police cannot/will not do anything. If you pay the perp then you have just proven yourself to be a good target.

There are websites that keep track of email addresses that have shown up after data hack/leaks. Same for password combinations. Try search for addresses and passwords you use (not at the same time) and make changes if you find matches.

The best thing you can do, is to always practice safe browsing, protect and change passwords, and dont click on strange links.
As for the current threat ... dont respond and try to ignore it, as difficult as it might be.

- Suzie

[Cynthia_0101]

My wife got a similar few emails a month or so ago. The kicker was they showed her MSN email address and an old password she used. It was a scam. The password was not a current one and was obtained from a previous attack.

Sounds like they are just throwing a net out wide and see who they catch.

Another option is to copy and paste the text into google and see what it comes up with, that's how we found it was a scam.

Hope this helps

Cynthia

[Judy-Somthing]

Kind of strange and uneven amount.

[Diane Smith]

Suzie and Cynthia have accurately described the most common recent attack that is going around. At first, these would contain real passwords you have used, indicating that they had been compromised in the past. More recently, lots of "copycat" versions of these messages have cropped up which don't even include the password fragment to lend credibility to their claims.

My question is, did the message actually mention "crossdressing" as implied in your first post? Or was it a more general threat, like "I have activated your webcam and have seen what you do in front of the computer?" The latter, if you think about it, doesn't mention any specific activity they have observed and is designed to appeal to everyone's generic sense of guilt. But I'd be far more worried if they mentioned dressing, or any identifiable behavior or clothing that indicated you had actually been an individual target. I would ignore the message unless it contained such personal details.

I've probably received a couple of dozen of these messages over the past few months and ignoring them has resulted in exactly zero harm. I did change the password that was identified in the first one, but it had been inactive for years anyway.

- Diane

[Sissy_in_pink]

Certainly sounds like a scam, I would download and install Malwarebytes there is a free version and run it to see if anything comes up, the worst malware is keyloggers that record every keystroke you make and sends a log to whoever sent it to you via an email or web site.

[Leslie Mary S]

That is not a virus. It is a malware. Having your AV active and up to date will NOT stop it. Make sure your Malware, ransom detector ware, and Identity theft programs are u to date.

[Jennifer_Ph]

Remove the threat, just tell them that everyone in your contact list already knows of your crossdressing, then tell them to eff off.

[BrendaPDX]

I agree with others, change your password and up date your AV software. They are probably throwing out a net, the worst thing you can do is respond back or pay them; they will know they have a live one.

[Kelly DeWinter]

Ignore it, It's a phishing expedition , as Brenda and other have said change ALL of your passwords on all of your accounts AFTER installing AV or updating AV software. your email address has been gotten from a site that probably contains cross dressing info. Responding in any for of fashion will escalate the blackmail attempt. If they had your contact list, you would know by now. Phishing has been around almost since the advent of email. Your best defense is to ignore it, and block the messages IP or email address.

[Samantha2015]

yeah replying to them is a mistake, then they know they have a live target and will probably
come after you more. I've had 2 such emails show in my spam folder.
As much as I wanted to reply and tell them to F off, I resisted. Just ignore them.

[Elizabeth G]

Not that this matters much but the £876 appears to be the conversion rate of 1,000 euro to pounds.

[Aunt Kelly]

Extortion spam. A form of phishing. It has become very common. The CD angle is new to me, but I'd still ignore it.

[Fran-K]

Hi

I’ve got the same email that Susie Petersen and a couple of other girls got. The password in the email was one I used years ago - but not since then.
I sent a couple of the letters to the FBI. I’m sure they’re busy tracking down the evildoer right now;-)
Otherwise ... ignored it
Nothing bad has happened ...

I think that they got userids and passwords from a couple of the big “password file breaches” that have been publicized recently.

Fran

[Alice B]

Had a similare situation a few months ago. I told them to sick their threat up their behind and to perch on it and rotate. Never heard from them again

[Jennifer_Ph]

Had a similare situation a few months ago. I told them to sick their threat up their behind and to perch on it and rotate. Never heard from them again

AND rotate? :heehee: Boy were you ever mad!! :love:

[RachelPortugal]

You say your computer has been hacked, but don't say that the hacker has taken control or has locked you out as can happen with a virus.

Personally I would ignore it, I received a threat a few weeks ago, but it came in on a business email address that is visible on-line on a government site for legal reasons. I get lots of spam from businesses in China through that address.

They asked for an amount in bitcoins or would send a video of me masturbating whilst visiting a teen porn site. This had never happened so I ignored the threat. In your case they have possibly picked on another, what they considered to be "shameful", activity which happened to be on target.

[melanie206]

If they specifically mentioned activities that are unique to you then this is beyond malware, phishing and routine hacking, it's blackmail. If these are things you would not like to explain to law enforcement they ignore the threat and do not send any money or any further response. On the other hand, if you are out about this stuff, reporting it to someone like the FBI or your state attorney general's office might save someone from being a victim in the future.

[AndreaCalifCD]

This site will tell you if your email addy has been compromised in a data breach - https://haveibeenpwned.com

For one of my "throw away" gmail accounts, it tells me, both Dropbox and Ticketfly were hacked, which I knew. I didn't know it was also compromised by a spambot by the name of "Onliner Spambot". Well worth a look, and regularly change your passwords!

[CynthiaD]

This is a well-known phishing scam. No one has hacked your computer, it's all a lie. This e-mail is sent randomly to thousands of people in the hope that some of them will actually send the money. Ignore the whole thing.

[t-girlxsophie]

Ignore and send it to the trash,complete and utter ******** up there with the Nigerian Prince wanting to send you millions.Deviant behaviour in pictures and video was how the one sent to me was pitched,as if I'm having that much "fun" in the first place :devil:

Sophie

[sometimes_miss]

We worry so much about being outed, but in the long run it is the truth and if friends can't handle it, that is their failure as a human.
Having lost several friends to the grim reaper over the past few years, I don't need to just gamble on losing the rest because of some misplaced insistence that they approve of crossdressing. It's not the only thing that I am, and I don't think it wise to risk everything else just to be able to say I'm absolutely truthful and out about everything all of the time.
No one tells everyone everything. We choose what to tell, depending on their need to know it. No one NEEDS to know that I crossdress, and I'm sure a lot wouldn't want to know. Some prefer blissful ignorance of certain things that don't affect them adversely, than knowing the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Just as I don't need to know if someone has a lot of ear (and other unmentionable parts of their body) hair, they don't need to know that I crossdress.

[fun4metoo2004]

quick answer. you lost your data. buy a new hard drive and reinstall everything. change all your passwords and login names. new email do not have them forward.

DO NOT PAY THEM.

[jking90]

If this was not a Windows popup, but an email, ignore it. As others have stated, it's been going around for a while without the crossdressing.

They probably included a password of yours in the subject heading, or near the top of the email to "prove" they had accessed your PC. They haven't.

What happened is a site, that you went to, was hacked. I have many different passwords, and used one password on one site only. That was how I received this email. The site that was hacked has not been around for several years.

Here's some more information on these kinds of scams:
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/07/sextortion-scam-uses-recipients-hacked-passwords/

[Meghan4now]

Lexi,

I am not advocating that we go out on a rant and tell everyone about our private life. But I think that it is important to consider that if we DO get outed, we should try to not lt that be the end of the world. If we are outed, rather than lie and attempt to deny (probably unsuccessfully) that portion of it,we should try to keep it in perspective. And while there can be fallout, if your loved ones really love you, it should not be insurmountable. There are so many far worse things than crossdressing.

I think we are sometimes so self critical and overly worried about being outed, that we sometimes make rash decisions. That is the Hallmark off these scammers. To get people so worried they react before thinking it through.

[Ceera]

I will second the suggestion to try the Malwarebytes app to remove any potential malware on your computer. If it was solely email, a simple phishing scam is likely. If there were Windows pop-ups, malware is likely. In either case, it is unlikely they can access anything actually harmful. Ignore the demands.

[Aunt Kelly]

Excellent points, Meghan. Take a breath, calm down and do some analysis. If you need help with that, get it. Regardless of the scenario, the best response will not come from panic. And in that worst case, where you are outed, treating it like it is no big deal. Maybe it is, but presenting an unashamed response can go a long way.

[Hollibelle]

I work in web and email support. We have seen a bunch of these types and of emails. The email specifically mentioned CDng?

[Vickie_CDTV]

If it is just in an email, ignore it. People get these all the time, usually threatening to out them for visiting adult sites or viewing child porn or whatever. It is a phishing scam, figuring their threat applies to some of the millions of people who will receive it and be dumb enough to believe and pay it. Only takes a few people out of of millions and millions to make it worthwhile to them.

[Rochal Tukque]

Many of us NOT ALL have two different lives. We have our male life and our femme life. Two different people. So why not have two different devices? You don't share emails between the accounts you don't log on to your femme account from your male device and visa versa. I got hacked on a old Android device on my femme account through a Factory installed App and got outed to some of my contacts. BFD !!!! They already knew. I told the jokers have fun your not getting squat from me. It worked for me and might give some others some peace of mind.

[Lara A]

I had this in my supposedly secure and encrypted email server. They asked for bitcoin! I deleted them.