I Am Well Aware Email Scam

What is "I Am Well Aware"?

"I Am Well Aware" is a fraudulent email (a scam) used to extort money from people by threatening to proliferate compromising videos.

By sending this email to many users, scammers attempt to trick recipients into believing that they have recorded compromising videos and will send them to all contacts unless ransoms are paid. There are many scam campaigns of this type, none of which should be trusted. All statements issued by the "I Am Well Aware" email are false.

According to scammers, they have used an adult website to install a remote access tool into the recipient's computer while he/she was visiting it. As a result, this tool apparently allowed them to gain access to the user's web cam, monitor activities performed on the computer, and steal email, Facebook, and Messenger contacts.

Cyber criminals claim that they have recorded a compromising video of the recipient watching an adult video and threaten to send this to all stolen contacts. They demand payment of $996 (in Bitcoins) transferred to a Bitcoin wallet provided, which is not to be disclosed elsewhere. Scammers promise to delete the recorded video as soon their ransom demands are met.

We strongly recommend that you ignore the "I Am Well Aware" scam. Claims of having installed a remote access tool, recorded a compromising video, stolen contacts, and so on, are false. They send this email to many people and hope that someone will fall for the scam. Unfortunately, sometimes they succeed.

Threat Summary:

Name	I Am Well Aware 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 other spam campaigns of this type, most of which are very similar. Just a few examples are I Sent You An Email From Your Account, Looked At You For Several Months, and I Am A Spyware Software Developer. Typically, scammers send these emails to trick people into believing that they have obtained humiliating material (photos, videos etc.) and will distribute it if their demands are not met.

Other spam campaigns infect computers with viruses such as TrickBot, Emotet, AZORult, Adwind, LokiBot, and so on. Cyber criminals achieve this by sending emails that contain malicious attachments - often Microsoft Office documents, executable files (.exe), PDF documents, archive files (ZIP, RAR, and others), and so on.

If such an attachment is opened, it downloads and installs a high-risk virus. Thus, having computers infected with these viruses can result in financial loss, other computer infections, problems with online safety, and so on.

These attachments proliferate viruses that steal personal details (passwords, logins, banking details, and so on) and proliferate other computer infections (such as ransomware-type viruses).

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 the haveibeenpwned website.

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Spam email campaigns cannot infect computers without the involvement of an email recipient (computer user). Therefore, attachments presented in these emails can cause computer infections only if they are opened. For example, if the presented attachment is a malicious Microsoft Office document, once opened, it asks for permission to enable macro commands.

If enabled, they begin the download and installation process of a virus. If the attachment is an archive file (ZIP, RAR, or other), its contents must first be extracted and executed. If an email contains an executable (.exe) file, it must be executed, and so on.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Do not open attachments or web links included in emails received from untrustworthy, suspicious, or unknown addresses. Simply ignore/delete them. Furthermore, do not download software from unofficial, untrustworthy websites using third party downloaders, peer-to-peer networks, or other dubious sources.

Install/download software with care, check all settings (or options) such as "Custom", "Manual", "Advanced", and opt-out of offers to install any additionally-included software that you do not want to install (or download). Avoid using third party, unofficial (fake) software updaters.

These tools are often employed by cyber criminals to trick users into installing viruses rather than updates or fixes. The best and safest way to update software is using functions and tools provided by official software developers. Another recommendation is to use Microsoft Office versions that are no older than 2010.

These versions have "Protected View" mode integrated, thus preventing malicious attachments from downloading viruses. 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 "I Am Well Aware" email message:

Subject: Info

I am well aware ******* is one of your pass words. Lets get directly to the point. Not a single person has paid me to investigate you. You may not know me and you're probably thinking why you are getting this e mail?

actually, i setup a software on the 18+ vids (sex sites) website and there's more, you visited this site to experience fun (you know what i mean). When you were watching videos, your web browser initiated operating as a Remote Desktop having a keylogger which provided me accessibility to your display screen and web cam. after that, my software program collected every one of your contacts from your Messenger, Facebook, as well as email . after that i created a double video. First part shows the video you were watching (you have a fine taste haha . . .), and next part shows the view of your webcam, yeah its u.

You will have a pair of options. We will read up on the solutions in particulars:

1st solution is to disregard this message. in this instance, i most certainly will send out your actual tape to every single one of your contacts and also think about concerning the shame you will get. Moreover if you happen to be in a loving relationship, exactly how it is going to affect?

Number two option would be to compensate me USD 996. Let us name it as a donation. as a result, i most certainly will without delay eliminate your videotape. You can keep going your way of life like this never occurred and you are never going to hear back again from me.

You will make the payment via Bitcoin (if you do not know this, search 'how to buy bitcoin' in Google search engine).

BTC address to send to: 1DG8pnwK9vdevHjB1nfDQRUmyYVJyPQNf9, 1Lq8TnU33SMFUXcyGYmwkfriaBAfEoX5Co, 1EQ2dtWb13VMuuv6fcgnMvrRyJzkoAaZM4, 17Lgh5C3RaCBDCMCQTk4xYVLtc1p8rWnzE, 1bH35EcAz5E7413K2wMhZB6WwVNN4nHqr

[case-SeNSiTiVe copy & paste it]

if you have been making plans for going to the authorities, okay, this e-mail can not be traced back to me. I have covered my actions. i am not looking to charge you a huge amount, i simply prefer to be rewarded. email message%}. if i don't receive the bitcoin, i will, no doubt send out your video recording to all of your contacts including close relatives, coworkers, etc. Nevertheless, if i do get paid, i will destroy the recording immediately. If you need evidence, reply with Yup & i definitely will send your video to your 8 friends. This is the non:negotiable offer, that being said do not waste mine time & yours by responding to this email.

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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 I Am Well Aware 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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