I'll Begin With The Most Important Email Scam

What is "I'll Begin With The Most Important"?

Scammers use the "I'll Begin With The Most Important" deceptive email to blackmail people. The main purpose of this scam is to trick victims into paying a ransom to cyber criminals.

They claim that they have recorded a compromising video of the recipient and will proliferate it unless the ransom payment is transferred to a Bitcoin wallet address provided. There are many similar spam campaigns spread via the internet, and none should be trusted.

According to this email, cyber criminals have hacked the recipient's computer and obtained access to all accounts, including email. To send this email, they use the so-called "spoofing" method, which allows them to falsify the sender's email address. In this case, they use the recipient's email address, thus making it seem as if the email was sent by the recipient.

This does not mean that they have hacked the email account. Scammers behind this scam also claim that they have infected the computer with a Trojan. They state that this happened when the recipient was visiting an adult website (on which they planted the infection).

They claim that the Trojan worked as remote access tool and allowed cyber criminals to access the webcam and microphone, and to obtain contacts lists from social networks and messengers. The main threat is that they claim they have recorded the screen when the user was watching an adult video, and also recorded a video of the user watching the video (via the webcam).

Scammers demand payment of $700 using the Bitcoin wallet provided, otherwise they threaten to send the video to all of the recipient's contacts. They also promise to delete the video (and not proliferate it) if their demands are met. Do not believe any statements made by the "I'll Begin With The Most Important" email scam.

Cyber criminals send these emails to many people hoping that a percentage will fall for the scam and pay to prevent distribution of videos that do not actually exist. Unfortunately, sometimes they succeed. The best option is to ignore these emails and simply delete them.

Threat Summary:

Name	I'll Begin With The Most Important 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 spam campaigns of this type, such as "I Know * Is One Of Your Pass", "Yоu May Not Know Mе", and "Wе Arе Nоt Going To Steal A Lot Of Time". Most are used to trick people into paying ransoms to cyber criminals. Other spam campaigns are used by cyber criminals to infect computers with high-risk infections such as LokiBot, TrickBot, Emotet, AZORult, Adwind, and others. 

They achieve this by sending emails that contain attachments such as Microsoft Office documents, archive files, executable files, PDF's and so on. The main purpose of these emails is to provoke recipients into opening the attachment, which results in download and installation of malware.

The computer infections that they proliferate using these emails are used to extract (steal) details such as logins, passwords, banking information and so on. Therefore, these malicious programs can cause financial loss, various privacy/browsing safety problems, and so on. Some infect computers with other malicious programs such as ransomware.

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?

Cyber criminals infect computers only if they succeed in tricking people into opening attachments within the emails they send. Therefore, these scam campaigns cannot harm computers without users first opening the attachments. For instance, if the attached file is a Microsoft Office document, it will demand permission to enable macro commands.

Once enabled, the malicious MS Office document will download and install a computer infection. All malicious files need to be executed in some way before they can do any damage.

How to avoid installation of malware?

If the attached file (or entire email) seems irrelevant or is received from a suspicious, unknown email address, keep it unopened. Do not open or download attachments without studying them. Third party software downloaders, installers, and other similar (dubious) sources should not be used to download or install software.

Many tools of this type are monetized by distributing rogue apps that might cause computer infections. We recommend that you install and download software carefully. Do not miss any available "Custom", "Advanced" settings of any download/installation set-up, deselect offers to install unwanted applications, and only then finish the process.

The safest way to update installed software is using implemented functions or tools provided by official software developers. Other third party updaters might cause installation of malicious software rather than the updates/improvements. If you are using MS Office, use versions no earlier than 2010.

Later versions include "Protected View" mode that prevents untrustworthy attachments from downloading and installing computer infections. Finally, do not use software cracking tools, since cyber criminals use them to proliferate computer infections.

Furthermore, they often install malicious programs rather than illegally activating paid software (which is a cyber crime). 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'll Begin With The Most Important" email message:

Subject: Security Notice. Someone have access to you system.

I'll begin with the most important.

I hacked your device and then got access to all your accounts... Including *************.
It is easy to check - I wrote you this email from your account.
Also I have an old password for the hacking day: ******

Moreover, I know your intim secret, and I have proof of this.
You do not know me personally, and no one paid me to check you.

It is just a coincidence that I discovered your mistake.
In fact, I posted a malicious code (exploit) to an adult site, and you visited this site...

While watching a video Trojan virus has been installed on your device through an exploit.
This darknet software working as RDP (remote-controlled desktop), which has a keylogger,
which gave me access to your microphone and webcam.
Soon after, my software received all your contacts from your messenger, social network and email.

At that moment I spent much more time than I should have.
I studied your love life and created a good video series.
The first part shows the video that you watched,
and the second part shows the video clip taken from your webcam (you are doing inappropriate things).

Honestly, I want to forget all the information about you and allow you to continue your daily life.
And I will give you two suitable options. Both are easy to do.
First option: you ignore this email.
The second option: you pay me $700(USD).

Let's look at 2 options in detail.

The first option is to ignore this email.
Let me tell you what happens if you choose this path.
I will send your video to your contacts, including family members, colleagues, etc.
This does not protect you from the humiliation that you and
your family need to know when friends and family members know about your unpleasant details.

The second option is to pay me. We will call this "privacy advice."
Now let me tell you what happens if you choose this path.
Your secret is your secret. I immediately destroy the video.
You continue your life as if none of this has happened.

Now you might think: "I'll call to police!"
Undoubtedly, I have taken steps to ensure that this letter cannot be traced to me,
and it will not remain aloof from the evidence of the destruction of your daily life.
I don't want to steal all your savings.
I just want to get compensation for my efforts that I put in to investigate you.
Let us hope that you decide to create all this in full and pay me a fee for confidentiality.
You make a Bitcoin payment (if you don't know how to do it, just enter "how to buy bitcoins" in Google search)

Shipping amount: $700(USD).
Getting Bitcoin Addresses: 1FVuyuSN41aa3JN9sn8qkuD2PmaMEMHHnc
(This is sensitive, so copy and paste it carefully)

Don't tell anyone what to use bitcoins for. The procedure for obtaining bitcoins can take several days, so do not wait.

I have a spetial code in Trojan, and now I know that you have read this letter.
You have 48 hours to pay.
If I don't get BitCoins, I'll send your video to your contacts, including close relatives, co-workers, and so on.
Start looking for the best excuse for friends and family before they all know.
But if I get paid, I immediately delete the video.

This is a one-time offer that is non-negotiable, so do not waste my and your time.
Time is running out.

Bye!

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Quick menu:

• What is I'll Begin With The Most Important 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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