The Spanish Civil Guard warns of online extortion using cryptocurrencies

A new warning from the Spanish Civil Guard warns of an online sexual extortion campaign (sex torsion) in which cybercriminals request cryptocurrencies as a form of payment so as not to publish sexual photos and videos of the victim.

“According to the criminals, to prevent the spread of this information, People have to pay up to $ 1,900 in some cases (around € 1,730) in cryptocurrencies that need to be entered into a virtual wallet, ”said Commissioner María Pilar Allué, recently chief of staff of the National Police, according to the Spanish newspaper ABC. The official referred to this online extortion campaign during a press conference on the current Covid-19 pandemic (coronavirus).

As detailed in the report from the Spanish Internet User Security Bureau attached to the National Institute for Cyber ​​Security (INCIBE), the threats are reported by email, intimidating the recipient and ensuring that they send their confidential videos or theirs Infect relatives with Covid. -19; unless the BTC amount is paid in less than 24 hours. The amount is $ 1,900, as determined by the Civil Guard in a Tweet.

Attackers use traditional email accounts like Gmail or Outlook. They also tell the victim in the news, possibly in English or Spanish, that they have an intimate video they received while the person was browsing adult content pages. The video, they argue, would have been produced thanks to the fact that they had previously infected the victim’s device to record it. This turns out to be untrue and is only a catch to chase unsuspecting victims.

It’s just a scam

Cyber ​​criminals also claim to have extracted the victim’s contacts from their emails and social networks. In some versions of the email, for obvious credibility, a password is displayed that is associated with the person and likely found through a data leak on the Internet.

The authorities confirm that this is an attempted fraud and warn that an email of this style should be completely ignored and should not be answered. “This is an attempt to defraud, no one has accessed your computer, they have no contacts or passwords, and there is no video,” they say, since the cybercriminal knows if the account is there if he receives a response from the victim is active and you can improve your attacks and send new ones in the future.

For this reason, they recommend that you do not open any unsolicited emails or from unknown users. In addition, it is recommended not to send personal information, keep the antivirus up to date, and use secure and different passwords for each service. double authentication and no disclosure of passwords.

Another suggestion that every internet user should consider is to check their email account on the Have I Been Pwned platform. This can be the case. It shows where and when the password has leaked, if it has sneaked into something Possible and somewhat frequent information leaks in some online services.

It is not the first time that the Spanish authorities have been exposed to cyber threats that link cryptocurrencies. One of the most recent milestones was the seizure of EUR 250,000 bitcoins, which are currently calculated in 25 BTC units that have not been confirmed by the National Police, as we reported in CryptoNews.

Today, we’re also reporting on how the Chilean Investigative Police (PDI) cybercrime brigade issued a similar warning after discovering a malicious email campaign that attempted to get cryptocurrencies using the The victim’s passwords threatened. They also try to steal documents, passwords, and other sensitive data with viruses and highly dangerous software Phishing.