You Certainly Do Not Know Me Email Scam

What is "You certainly do not know me"?

"You certainly do not know me" is a scam, which is proliferated as a spam campaign. Scammers (cyber criminals) send emails to many people to extort money from them. In this case, the email also contains a website link that should not be opened. This is a common scam - if you receive the email, ignore the message and delete it.

The scammer who proliferates this email presents herself as an "extremely beautiful" 21-year-old Russian woman who wishes to attend university but does not have money for the studies. In exchange for these funds, this scammer offers private photos and videos: sexual photos at a cost of $90 and an erotic video equivalent to $170.

The person responsible for this email also claims that, for $250, she will record a video doing anything the recipient wishes. All payments are required using a cryptocurrency. At the end of this email, there is a request to keep this offer private - not to share it with anyone else.

Furthermore, there is a website link that supposedly leads to some personal photos of the person who sent this proposal. Do not open these links, since they redirect to various untrustworthy websites (such as dubious dating pages).

Some could be malicious and designed to cause computer infections. We recommend that you simply ignore the "You certainly do not know me" scam and other similar scams.

Threat Summary:

Name	You Certainly Do Not Know Me 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.

Generally, these emails are used by cyber criminals to blackmail people. They claim that they have recorded a humiliating/compromising video and threaten to proliferate it unless their ransom demands are met. This particular email is different, however, since it shares an identical purpose - to extort money from its recipients.

Some examples of other scams are "Hey. It's me! Your Future Friend Or Enemy", "I Have A Forum In The Darkweb", and "Your Account Was Hacked". Note that cyber criminals often use other similar scams.

They send emails that contain malicious attachments designed to infect computers with various malicious programs such as LokiBot, TrickBot, Emotet, AZORult, Adwind, and other high-risk viruses. Typically, attached files are Microsoft Office documents, JavaScript files, executables (.exe files), archives such as ZIP, RAR, and other files.

The main goal is to trick people into opening these attachments. Once opened, they download and install computer infections. Malicious programs proliferated through spam campaigns usually steal personal details or proliferate other infections. Thus, having computers infected by them usually causes financial/data loss, problems with browsing safety, online privacy, and so on.

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?

As we mentioned above, to infect computers, the presented attachments (or website links that lead to them) must first be opened. If the attached file is a MS Office document (for example, a Word document), when opened, it will demand permission to enable editing/enable content (i.e. to enable macro commands).

Allowing a malicious document to do this will result in download and installation of high-risk computer infections. Similar rules apply to other files. For example, if the attachment is an .exe (executable) or JavaScript file, it must first be opened (executed).

How to avoid installation of malware?

To avoid serious damage (unwanted consequences) caused by computer infections, handle emails received from unknown or suspicious addresses with care, especially if they contain attachments or web links. Generally, these emails are irrelevant but are presented as official/legitimate. They cannot be trusted and attachments included within them should not be opened.

Keep your computer safe by downloading software from official websites and using direct links. Avoid using dubious source such as Peer-to-Peer networks, unofficial websites, third party downloaders, and other tools of this kind. Update software using tools provided by official software developers only.

Do not use software cracking tools to avoid paying for licensed software. These tools are often used to proliferate malware. Finally, have a reputable anti-virus or anti-spyware software installed and have it enabled at all times.

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 "You certainly do not know me" email message:

Subject: I have an offer for you personally personally, believe you must enjoy it, so please go through this. [123456@passaia.it] 26.02.2019 03:04:03

Hi there

You certainly do not know me,although please read the following,since i require your support as a swap for some thing from me personally.I reside in Russia.I was 21 years,and I actually desire to proceed to university.So,i obviously need some cash for this.Since I reside in countryside,we possess a difficult options with work here and the women have absolutely no place to function to generate cash for college.

Yet now i am extremely beautiful and youthful,therefore i will offer you my private shots or even movies.So here is what i can certainly provide you.

- For 90 bucks you will get a collection of my sexual photos
- For 170 bucks I will send out you an erotic video footage with myself

And so For 250 bucks I am going to film the footage with me and do everything you wish in there.The payment need to be mailed exclusively through bitcoin,because i must remain incognito.

I really hope my proposition will certainly remain private and you'll not inform any person about this,especially avoid to reveal my images or this letter to no one.If you are interested,the fee transaction address is below.Just google and yahoo if perhaps you do understand how to use bitcoin.

(if you donít know this,search "how to buy bitcoin" in Google).

BTC Address- 1N4Lg4w9ymeD7ixetGtP6xMq3YWLe1RgNG
(It is cAsE sensitive,so copy and paste it)

Additionally you can have a look at my personal photos listed here

on the ??ite my ID:91524 and name is Lillian

Thanks,

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Quick menu:

• What is You Certainly Do Not Know Me 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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