Important For Your Sake Email Scam

What is "Important for your sake"?

"Important for your sake" is one of many email scam campaigns used by cyber criminals/scammers to make ransom demands. They threaten to proliferate photos of recipients viewing so-called 'inappropriate' images/videos.

Scammers behind this scam claim to be members of a so-called group called 'Anonymous' and state that you have been flagged by a system that monitors activity of internet users. This email scam is sent using a spoofing method that allows scammers to falsify the sender's email address. Therefore, they make it appear that you have sent this email to yourself.

According to these people, you have been flagged for viewing inappropriate images/videos and they have gathered various information about you such as financial details, webcam records, or screenshots that could be used to  embarrass you.

They state that if you do not pay a "fee" of one hundred pounds (£100) within 72 hours, they will send compromising photos/videos to all of your contacts (family, friends, co-workers, social media contacts, etc). Scammers often send these emails to many people in the hope that someone will fall for their scam.

Note that this is indeed just a scam, and all claims are false. Ignore scammers who use these spam campaigns. Delete this email and ignore all other similar emails in future.

Threat Summary:

Name	Important For Your Sake Email Scam
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud
Symptoms	Unauthorized online purchases, changed online account passwords, identity theft, illegal access of one's computer.
Distribution methods	Deceptive emails, rogue online pop-up ads, search engine poisoning techniques, misspelled domains.
Damage	Loss of sensitive private information, monetary loss, identity theft.
Malware Removal (Windows)	To eliminate possible malware infections, scan your computer with legitimate antivirus software. Our security researchers recommend using Combo Cleaner. ▼ Download Combo Cleaner To use full-featured product, you have to purchase a license for Combo Cleaner. 7 days free trial available. Combo Cleaner is owned and operated by Rcs Lt, the parent company of PCRisk.com read more.

There are many examples of scam campaigns, including Hello, Sacrifice. This Is My Last Warning!!!, So I'm The Hacker Who Broke Your Email, and I'm Programmer Who Cracked Your Email. These (and other) scams are very similar - scammers use them to trick people into paying ransoms.

They make threats about having obtained humiliating photos/videos and that they will send them to all contacts if they do not receive payment. Another type of spam campaign exists that does extort money from people, but infects their computers with viruses.

These campaigns are used to proliferate emails that contain malicious attachments (typically, Microsoft Office documents, PDF, archive files, executables, or other files). The main goal is to trick people into downloading and opening malicious attachments that, once opened, install viruses such as Adwind, TrickBot, Emotet, AZORult, and other high-risk malware.

Generally, these infections extract people's bank account details, logins, passwords, and other personal information. These infections might cause serious problems relating to privacy, finances, and so on. Some of these viruses might even open "backdoors" for other malware (such as ransomware) to infiltrate (chain system infections).

We receive a great deal of feedback from concerned users about this scam email. Here is the most popular question we receive:

Q: Hi pcrisk.com team, I received an email stating that my computer was hacked and they have a video of me. Now they are asking for a ransom in Bitcoins. I think this must be true because they listed my real name and password in the email. What should I do?

A: Do not worry about this email. Neither hackers nor cyber criminals have infiltrated/hacked your computer and there is no video of you watching pornography. Simply ignore the message and do not send any Bitcoins. Your email, name, and password was probably stolen from a compromised website such as  Yahoo (these website breaches are common). If you are concerned, you can check if your accounts have been compromised by visiting haveibeenpawned website.

How did "Important for your sake" infect my computer?

Spam email campaigns that use email attachments (files/links) as a way to infect computers are only successful when users open the attachments. Archive files such as RAR must be extracted, executable files (EXE) must be executed, and so on. If the malicious attachment is a Microsoft Office document, it will first ask to enable macros commands.

Once these commands are enabled, malicious MS Office documents are able to download and install high-risk viruses. In summary, people who do not open these malicious attachments are safe from computer infections by viruses that are proliferated through spam email campaigns.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Avoid opening attachments presented in emails received from suspicious, unknown or untrustworthy addresses. If you believe that an email you have received is irrelevant or suspicious, do not download or open any attachment or web link. Download software using official, trustworthy sources only.

Do not use third party downloaders or installers, since these are often used to proliferate rogue applications, malicious programs, and so on. Install/download software with care, and check "Custom", "Advanced" and other similar installation setup options. Opt-out of/dismiss offers to install additional applications and only then complete the installation process.

Update software using tools or functions provided by official developers only. Note that Microsoft Office 2010 (and later releases) have "Protected View" mode, which prevents malicious attachments from automatically executing commands that download and install malware.

Therefore, do not use older versions of MS Office. If you have already opened malicious attachments, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate infiltrated malware.

Text presented in the "Important for your sake" email letter:

Subject: Hello

Anonymous anonymousop@riseup.net

Hello

It is very important for your sake you read this email.

If you do not reply with an answer within 72 hours we will be forced to take action.

You have been flagged in our server which monitors people due to their internet activity.

You have either been flagged for viewing inapropiate images/videos (e.g. porn) or acting against our moral code.

Your windows computer system was compromised some time back and as a result we have gathered information on you.

This could be financial, recordings of your webcam/computer screen, or any evidence we deem fit to expose you with.

We do not contact the police. We extract your friends/family from social media and emails and deploy an email to them with the evidence/logs.

Below you can find some of your passwords. We are demanding a one off payment for all evidence deleted and removed from our system.

If you do not comply, Anonymous will then take over this handle. They will be in charge of extracting money from you and also exposing you.

It's important to note that we do not want to carry out an attack on you. It is only if you do not comply with the one off payment.

In some cases photos/recordings of you masturbating can also be sent to friends and family if you do not comply.

You have 72 hours to respond to this email. It is very important that you understand what will happen if you do not respond to this email.

The payment process is simple and straight forward. When you have paid, we delete the evidence we have. If you ignore, we take action.

You are receiving this message after a certain time period of monitoring has taken place on your windows PC.

Get in touch within the next 72 hours to pay the fee of £100 or else you will regret it and you will most likely end up paying more.

We Are Anonymous

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▼ DOWNLOAD Combo Cleaner By downloading any software listed on this website you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. To use full-featured product, you have to purchase a license for Combo Cleaner. 7 days free trial available. Combo Cleaner is owned and operated by Rcs Lt, the parent company of PCRisk.com read more.

Quick menu:

• What is Important For Your Sake spam?
• Types of malicious emails.
• How to spot a malicious email?
• What to do if you fell for an email scam?

Types of malicious emails:

Phishing Emails

Most commonly, cybercriminals use deceptive emails to trick Internet users into giving away their sensitive private information, for example, login information for various online services, email accounts, or online banking information.

Such attacks are called phishing. In a phishing attack, cybercriminals usually send an email message with some popular service logo (for example, Microsoft, DHL, Amazon, Netflix), create urgency (wrong shipping address, expired password, etc.), and place a link which they hope their potential victims will click on.

After clicking the link presented in such email message, victims are redirected to a fake website that looks identical or extremely similar to the original one. Victims are then asked to enter their password, credit card details, or some other information that gets stolen by cybercriminals.

Emails with Malicious Attachments

Another popular attack vector is email spam with malicious attachments that infect users' computers with malware. Malicious attachments usually carry trojans that are capable of stealing passwords, banking information, and other sensitive information.

In such attacks, cybercriminals' main goal is to trick their potential victims into opening an infected email attachment. To achieve this goal, email messages usually talk about recently received invoices, faxes, or voice messages.

If a potential victim falls for the lure and opens the attachment, their computers get infected, and cybercriminals can collect a lot of sensitive information.

While it's a more complicated method to steal personal information (spam filters and antivirus programs usually detect such attempts), if successful, cybercriminals can get a much wider array of data and can collect information for a long period of time.

Sextortion Emails

This is a type of phishing. In this case, users receive an email claiming that a cybercriminal could access the webcam of the potential victim and has a video recording of one's masturbation.

To get rid of the video, victims are asked to pay a ransom (usually using Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency). Nevertheless, all of these claims are false - users who receive such emails should ignore and delete them.

How to spot a malicious email?

While cyber criminals try to make their lure emails look trustworthy, here are some things that you should look for when trying to spot a phishing email:

• Check the sender's ("from") email address: Hover your mouse over the "from" address and check if it's legitimate. For example, if you received an email from Microsoft, be sure to check if the email address is @microsoft.com and not something suspicious like @m1crosoft.com, @microsfot.com, @account-security-noreply.com, etc.
• Check for generic greetings: If the greeting in the email is "Dear user", "Dear @youremail.com", "Dear valued customer", this should raise suspiciousness. Most commonly, companies call you by your name. Lack of this information could signal a phishing attempt.
• Check the links in the email: Hover your mouse over the link presented in the email, if the link that appears seems suspicious, don't click it. For example, if you received an email from Microsoft and the link in the email shows that it will go to firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0... you shouldn't trust it. It's best not to click any links in the emails but to visit the company website that sent you the email in the first place.
• Don't blindly trust email attachments: Most commonly, legitimate companies will ask you to log in to their website and to view any documents there; if you received an email with an attachment, it's a good idea to scan it with an antivirus application. Infected email attachments are a common attack vector used by cybercriminals.

To minimise the risk of opening phishing and malicious emails we recommend using Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows. 

Example of a spam email:

What to do if you fell for an email scam?

• If you clicked on a link in a phishing email and entered your password - be sure to change your password as soon as possible. Usually, cybercriminals collect stolen credentials and then sell them to other groups that use them for malicious purposes. If you change your password in a timely manner, there's a chance that criminals won't have enough time to do any damage.
• If you entered your credit card information - contact your bank as soon as possible and explain the situation. There's a good chance that you will need to cancel your compromised credit card and get a new one.
• If you see any signs of identity theft - you should immediately contact the Federal Trade Commission. This institution will collect information about your situation and create a personal recovery plan.
• If you opened a malicious attachment - your computer is probably infected, you should scan it with a reputable antivirus application. For this purpose, we recommend using Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows.
• Help other Internet users - report phishing emails to Anti-Phishing Working Group, FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, National Fraud Information Center and U.S. Department of Justice.

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