A few days ago I found this in my blog spam folder, dated June 29, 2020:
PLEASE FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO SOMEONE IN YOUR COMPANY WHO IS ALLOWED TO MAKE IMPORTANT DECISIONS!
We have hacked your website http://www.cheerfulmonk.com and extracted your databases.
How did this happen?
Our team has found a vulnerability within your site that we were able to exploit. After finding the vulnerability we were able to get your database credentials and extract your entire database and move the information to an offshore server.What does this mean?
We will systematically go through a series of steps of totally damaging your reputation. First your database will be leaked or sold to the highest bidder which they will use with whatever their intentions are. Next if there are e-mails found they will be e-mailed that their information has been sold or leaked and your site http://www.cheerfulmonk.com was at fault thusly damaging your reputation and having angry customers/associates with whatever angry customers/associates do. Lastly any links that you have indexed in the search engines will be de-indexed based off of blackhat techniques that we used in the past to de-index our targets.
How do I stop this?
We are willing to refrain from destroying your site’s reputation for a small fee. The current fee is .33 BTC in bitcoins ($3000 USD).
Send the bitcoin to the following Bitcoin address (Copy and paste as it is case sensitive):
1HPTGdcnRDcQtfAeE8GPdMQT2NPczHZ6EW
Once you have paid we will automatically get informed that it was your payment. Please note that you have to make payment within 5 days after receiving this notice or the database leak, e-mails dispatched, and de-index of your site WILL start!
How do I get Bitcoins?
You can easily buy bitcoins via several websites or even offline from a Bitcoin-ATM. We suggest you https://cex.io/ for buying bitcoins.
What if I don’t pay?
If you decide not to pay, we will start the attack at the indicated date and uphold it until you do, there’s no counter measure to this, you will only end up wasting more money trying to find a solution. We will completely destroy your reputation amongst google and your customers.
This is not a hoax, do not reply to this email, don’t try to reason or negotiate, we will not read any replies. Once you have paid we will stop what we were doing and you will never hear from us again!
Please note that Bitcoin is anonymous and no one will find out that you have complied.
I didn’t even see it until after the 5 days had passed, but I doubt I would have worried if I had seen it sooner. My site was hacked years ago, nothing serious but enough for me to pay for a secure firewall.
Do you believe that this message would strike terror in anyone’s heart? Or do you think it’s so ridiculous it’s just good for a laugh?
July 14, 2020
I would hope that people would just find it funny and move on. Sadly there are people who would be scared enough to fall for it though.
I haven’t had any like this but I was getting voicemails saying that there was a warrant out for my arrest and that if I didn’t follow the instructions a sherrriff would be sent to pick me up. When I listened to it I had a good laugh and thought let them pick me up, I need a day off from work.
That’s the right attitude! 😀
Did you prepare some treats to feed the sherriff? And at this point would they wear a mask?
I chuckled several times as I read it.
😀
I rarely open spam – the subject line usually has me delete and then make sure that’s done delete it again…
Of course recognised senders arrive it in from time to time….but again I can see that and shift it “not spam”
This wasn’t email spam, it was a comment to my blog contact page. My spam filter called it correctly. 🙂
I added “blog” to “spam folder” so it’s less confusing. Thank you.
like Linda… I laughed through it. it sounds like a 10 year old trying to sound tough! I never even read things in my spam file. they’re only in there once in a blue moon anyway! I just automatically delete them.
when the peanut was hacked … I invested in Best Buy’s security Webroot.
I haven’t had any problems since. it’s been worth every penny.
The spam folder is for my blog… occasionally a valid comment will go there so that’s why I check.
I wish I could laugh about it…I might not be scared but it really gets to me that people like this get away with threats like this. I got one of the phone calls threatening me one day…I don’t know how come I even answered because I usually don’t answer the phone unless it is someone I know. I did just hang up.
But did you see the comment Margaret left on my blog about the spam call… she said every now and then she acts like a little old lady and speaks in a shaky voice and asks them now who are you, etc….I sometimes feel like answering that I am such and such police dept., etc. I think it would be hilarious to just take up their time by asking them questions…
I didn’t see Margaret’s comment, but I can see why someone would want to play with the caller. We don’t have caller ID, so we don’t answer the phone when it rings unless we’re expecting a call. Then if it’s a telemarketer we hang up right away. If we’re not expecting a call but it’s someone we know we pick up as soon as we hear them on the answering machine. That is such a great invention! So are speaker phones. We can do constructive things if someone puts us on hold.
I will say I did laugh at Ann’s answer!
Yes, so did I!
Balderdash!
It was so bad it was funny.
I like the email I got better than yours then it comes to finding things to laugh about. It said they had videos of me ‘pleasuring myself’ and other embarrassing things that they captured with my own laptop’s camera. And if I didn’t pay up—got the whole bitcoin instructions too—they’d send the videos out to everyone in my address book. The sad thing is these spam pieces of crap must trap enough victims that it pays for them to do it.
Yes, yours was a lot worse. 😀
This is scary, and they clearly want money. Call the police, they will be able to tell you what to do or where to go about this. It is illegal.
This one was so bad I don’t think anyone would fall for it.
The sad part is that there are some people who might actually follow through with what they were told to do. Mom doesn’t read any of her spam either, just kicks it to the trash.
Woos ~ Lightning, Misty, and Timber
I check my spam folders on both my blog and my email account, just in case something got put there by mistake. I never open the email spam, but my blog spam filter displays the spam messages. Both filters work amazingly well.
I wouldn”t say that it’d be terror or funny. My description would be a pain in my posterior! People that have nothing better to do with their day need to have a taste of their own medicine. I’ve been tempted so many times to reciprocate and fill their comments with spam…..but, that would be stooping to their level & probably loading a virus on my phone/computer.
I’ve read that spams like this are often from foreign countries, and that they’re hidden so our government can’t do anything about them. 🙁
I have gotten that exact same email not once but twice! And one other bloggers got it and it really upset her because she believed it but I told her it’s just Spam just more of the same people trying to make problems. And the first place if somebody hacked your site they wouldn’t get anything and they sure wouldn’t tell you that they did it. I am getting emails almost daily from 5 different banks and they all say the same thing they say your account has been hacked and we’ve locked your account and you can’t use it until you do such and such and it’s all banks that I’ve never had an account with I’ve never gotten one from the bank that I use only from five banks I never used. It really is a pain that they’re doing all this stuff and people believe them and lose a lot of money. The thing is is never believe anything that comes in an email
Thank you for telling me. I’m glad you could reassure the other blogger. I also get all sorts of spams saying my accounts have been hacked. Like you they’re often about banks I don’t deal with. Sigh….
That’s a new one on me, but it’s so obviously spam! I get scam phone calls, either claiming to be from the “BT technical department” saying my internet connection is faulty, or claiming to be from Amazon, saying my Prime account is about to expire.
Yes, the nice thing is it was so bad it’s funny.