Cyber security experts have uncovered a “spambot” that claims to have recorded victims watching porn, and then uses this to commit sexual blackmail — a practice known as sextortion.
A spambot is a programme designed to harvest email addresses from the Internet in order to build mailing lists for sending unsolicited emails.
This particular spambot, named Varenyky, was discovered in France , where it began by sending spam emails for smartphone promotions. However, a new variant of Varenyky has started a sextortion campaign, in which it claims that a hacker has gained access to the victim’s computer through a virus that was caught while visiting an adult website.
The email also says a video has been made where on one half of the screen is a recording of the victim’s browser and the other half is a recording from the webcam of “you having… fun”. It claimsthat the recipient is not the only victim, and that they will be left alone once €750 is paid in bitcoin to an anonymous account. The email says the victim has 72 hours to pay before the video is sent to family, colleagues, posted on Facebook and Twitter .
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