{"id":3784,"date":"2024-02-14T12:45:45","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T11:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cyberinsights.argusgpi.com\/?p=3784"},"modified":"2025-02-20T15:23:50","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T14:23:50","slug":"phishing-the-sextortion-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/02\/14\/phishing-the-sextortion-scam\/","title":{"rendered":"CYBER INSIGHTS: PHISHING\/ SEXTORION – The SME Threat Increases!"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Wednesday, 14 February 2024<\/p>\n

PHISHING<\/a>\/SEXTORION: The Take-over Scam – Surely this doesn’t happen to Businesses? WRONG!<\/b>
\nWritten & Curated By\u00a0Iain Fraser \u2013 SME Cybersecurity Journalist<\/a>
\nIainFRASER.net\/CYBERInsights<\/a>
\nDaily Cyber Insights<\/a>
\nGoogle Indexed on 140224 at 11:10 CET<\/a>
\n#CYBERInsights\u00a0 #CybersecurityJournalist\u00a0 #SMECybersecurity #Phishing<\/em><\/p>\n

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PHISHING<\/a>: The Sextortion scam<\/strong> as I like to call it, has raised its ugly head again with a refined Scam for 2024. I first wrote about this nearly six years ago after I received a flurry of emails with the standard copy & paste text. Most Small Businesses\/SMEs<\/strong> ignore these threats as not being relevant to business but they would be wrong!<\/p>\n

There are many surveys on this subject; but the rule is that over 70% of all internet users view Porn – and the the other 30% Lie!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The NCSC<\/strong> <\/a>(National Cyber Security Centre) defines Sextortion scams as “Sextortion scams are a type of phishing attack whereby people are coerced to pay a BitCoin ransom because they have been threatened with sharing video of themselves visiting adult websites. These scams are made to appear all the more credible because they provide seemingly plausible technical details about how this was achieved, and the phish can sometimes also include the individual\u2019s password”<\/a> Learn More \/…<\/p>\n

How does the Sextortion Scam work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Very simple really – An email arrives in your inbox, but from your email address. This of course garners immediate concern. The email usually says something like “Hello!<\/em>
\nHave you recently noticed that I have e-mailed you from your account?<\/em>
\nYes, this simply means that I have total access to your device. For the last couple of months, I have been watching you. Still wondering how is that possible? Well, you have been infected with malware originating from an adult website that you visited. You may not be familiar with this, but I will try explaining it to you.”<\/em><\/p>\n

These Emails are given added credence by the sender ID coming from one of your email addresses. They haven’t hijacked your account or computer but set up the sender ID as yours – Simple! Learn More \/… Join my Inner Sanctum for my Daily Cyber insights – Practical Daily Advice for your Small Business\/SME<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

#CYBERInsights\u00a0 #CybersecurityJournalist\u00a0 #SMECybersecurity #Phishing #Sextortion\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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INVESTIGATION: THE SMALL BUSINESS LOAN SCAM<\/strong><\/p>\n

This model of the Small Business Loan Scam started during the Covid Pandemic and true to form the Scammers were offering “Guaranteed” Small Business<\/strong> Loans. Well, I have to report that the Business Loan Scam<\/strong> is rearing its ugly head. Register Free to read my full investigation and report in to this scourge on struggling SMEs\/Small Businesses.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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CYBERSECURITY EVENTS – EUROPE | LIVE & VIRTUAL<\/strong><\/p>\n

29\/02\/2024 LIVE EVENT: THE FRAUD CONFERENCE<\/strong> | 29 February 2024 | Royal College of Physicians, London. Learn More \/…\u00a0<\/a>
\n31\/05\/2024 ONLINE EVENT: SANS INSTITUTE –<\/strong> Ransomware Summit 2024 | 31 May 2024 | Live Online – Learn More \/…<\/a><\/p>\n

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CYBER VOICE\/PR WIRE<\/strong><\/p>\n

GARTNER: <\/strong>Roll out the AI Opportunity Radar to your executive team. Learn More \/\u2026<\/a>
\nVEEAM:<\/strong> Cybersecurity Best Practices and Hybrid Cloud Resilience. Learn More \/…<\/a><\/strong>
\nSME RESOURCES:<\/strong> Why Choose Datadog? Full-Stack Observability. Learn More \/…<\/strong><\/a>
\nSPLUNK:<\/strong> Best practices for practical observability – must-read report. Learn More \/…<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,604],"tags":[419],"ppma_author":[415],"class_list":["post-3784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cyberinsights","category-scam","tag-cyberinsights"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","covernews-featured":"","covernews-medium":""},"author_info":{"display_name":"Cybersecurity Journalist Iain Fraser","author_link":false},"category_info":"SMECYBERIINSIGHTS<\/a> SCAM<\/a>","tag_info":"SCAM","comment_count":"0","authors":[{"term_id":415,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"cybersecurity-journalist-iain-fraser","display_name":"Cybersecurity Journalist - Iain Fraser","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/index_image440-removebg-preview.png","url2x":"https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/index_image440-removebg-preview.png"},"0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3784"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18728,"href":"https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3784\/revisions\/18728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3784"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smecyberinsights.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=3784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}