An active sextortion campaign actively targeting a large database of more than 200 million compromised email accounts has been spotted by researchers at Cofense Labs.

Extortion emails are being sent by scammer outfits either with the help of massive spam botnets or via smaller and more targeted spam campaigns.

The number of extortion emails delivered that reach the targets’ inboxes are on a continuous rise, especially since the crooks behind these cybercriminal operations are also coming up with new approaches to monetize their databases of leaked email accounts.

Database of accounts targeted by sextortion

Cofense Labs, Cofense’s new arm of research and development discovered the botnet that targets the over 200 million leaked accounts in the database with sextortion emails in June 2019.

The scammers’ activity is being monitored on a daily basis by the researchers with the end goal being of keeping a close eye on new email addresses being targeted, as well as keep track of a malware strain this malicious campaign is currently distributing.

The full database is now searchable online on the Cofense website and it can be accessed HERE, allowing potential future victims of this sextortion campaign to take mitigation measures and not fall for the scammers’ panic-inducing tricks.

“If your email address is found in a target list used by the botnet, it’s highly likely you will receive a sextortion email – if you haven’t already. We felt it was critical to get this information out,” says Cofense Co-Founder and CTO Aaron Higbee.

“We hope that victims receiving a sextortion email will find our resource center so they can avoid the anxiety and stress of trying to figure out whether to pay a bitcoin ransom.”

“This botnet is not infecting computers to acquire new data sets – it is a true ‘spray and pray’ attack reusing credentials culled from past data breaches to fuel legitimacy and panic through sextortion scams.”

Cofense recommends taking the following measures to prevent being tricked by this sextortion campaign:

Sextortion emails on the rise

Sextortion is a very specific type of email scam that was first seen in the wild during July 2018, when crooks started emailing their victims claiming that they have them recorded on video while browsing adult sites.

To make their scams messages more credible, they also include the passwords that were leaked with the accounts as part of a data breach dump. 

Besides extorting money from people fearing that their adult site browsing history will be made public, the crooks behind sextortion campaign have also started distributing various strains of malware from ransomware to data-stealing Trojans.

So far, 30 victims have paid more than $50,000 in total. (and I have only examined 42 BTC addresses, my expectation is that there are thousands of them) Thanks to everyone who sends the Bitcoin addresses to me. cc: @danielverlaan @BleepinComputer @KarinSpaink https://t.co/9k83hSogBF

— SecGuru (@SecGuru_OTX) July 19, 2018

Sextortion scams were and still are an extremely successful operation, with one of the campaigns having raked in over $50,000 within a single week in July.

To have an even more clear idea of how much sextortion scam operators collect from their victims, ISC handler Rick Wanner found after tracking only a handful of Bitcoin addresses used by the crooks to consolidate their earnings that they’ve raked in at least $69 Billion.

“It is important to remember that these consolidation addresses are the ones I was able to find using only our very limited set of tracked Sexploitation BTC addresses, there are very likely many more consolidation addresses in use,” Wanner says in his Sextortion: Follow the Money – The Final Chapter report published today.

Bleeping Computer^® is a community of individuals of all ages who are here to learn new information, to help each other, and to help their fellow peers. With that in mind, we ask that all members please follow these simple rules in order to create an atmosphere where everyone feels comfortable.

The rules are as follows:

• All information and instructions given within these forums is to be used at your own risk. By following or using any of this information you give up the right to hold BleepingComputer.com liable for any damages.
• All the forums are categorized by topics.  Please post your questions or messages in the appropriate forum.
• Answers to many of the questions you may have can be found in the Tutorials Section, Glossary, or from other posts on the message boards.  Please use the search functions, at the top right of each page, to find your answers.  If you are still having problems, feel free to post your question.
• All help must be provided in the forums or on our Discord Server. We do not allow support to be provided or requested via personal message, email, or remote desktop control programs (Logmein, TeamViewer, etc).
• If a topic is posted in a forum that is not appropriate for the question, the staff has the right to move that topic to another better suited forum.
• The posting of any copyrighted material on our web site is strictly prohibited.
• Posting links in order to generate affiliate commissions is not permitted at BleepingComputer.com. Any posts that are deemed to be posted in order to generate affiliate commissions, regardless of the product being promoted, will be deleted. If a user continues to create affiliate SPAM posts, they will be banned.
• Posting links to non-Bleeping Computer malware removal guides is NOT permitted with the exception of security vendors who sometimes release specialized tools and instructional documentation. This is because it is impractical for BleepingComputer to monitor and review all such guides for accuracy, no matter how accurate those guides may, in fact, be.
• There will be no  use of profanity on our message boards.  This will not be tolerated and can lead to immediate suspension.
• When posting, please use proper grammar. Refrain from ‘text-message’ style substitutions of words like ‘u’ for ‘you’, and ‘ur’ for ‘your’. This is a multi-national forum, and some of our non-english speaking members must use translation software which is confused by abbreviations. Most of our volunteer members are very busy helping as many people as they can, and a post that is hard to read will often be overlooked.
• There will be no racial, ethnic, gender based insults or any other personal discriminations.  This will not be tolerated and can lead to immediate suspension.
• There will be no posts meant to offend or hurt any other member, in a manner which is offensive or inflammatory. This includes flaming or instigating arguments.
• Spamming is not permitted; please keep all your posts as constructive as possible.
• Pornography, warez, or any other illegal transactions may NOT be linked in any shape or form.
• If you have questions regarding homework, we will only help you with general concepts. If you are looking for a complete solution or answer, we will most likely just delete your post.
• No subject matter will be allowed whose purpose is to defeat existing copyright or security measures. If a user persists and/or the activity is obviously illegal the staff reserves the right to remove such content and/or ban the user. This would also mean encouraging the use or continued use of pirated software is not permitted, and subject to the same consequences.
• If you are receiving assistance in the Virus Removal forum, you are not allowed to request assistance for the same computer at another malware removal forum. This is to prevent conflicting advice from causing issues with your computer or making it unbootable.
• This forum has the right to request alteration or deletion of any offensive post. If this is not done in a prompt manner, the Staff will delete the material themselves.
• Posts may be deleted for any reasons the forum administrators deem reasonable.
• Pictures may be posted as long as they are not explicit, offensive, or copyrighted.
• Advertisements, of any sort, are not permitted. This includes member names and links to commercial sites in Signatures, or in posts. You also may not solicit sales for Newegg through the use of promotion or coupon codes. If you would like to advertise on our site, contact us here.
• In order to reduce spam on the site, you will not be able to add a signature to your account until you reach 25 posts. Signatures are limited to 5 lines or 2000 characters; whichever comes first. If your signature is larger than the allotted size given or deemed unacceptable, you will be requested to adjust your signature. Failure to comply will result in the removal of your signature.
• Only one image per signature. Images in signatures must also be no larger than 500 pixels wide X 90 pixels high. If you have more than one image you will be requested to remove one. If this is not done in a timely manner the staff has the right to modify your signature to abide by these rules.
• Any links in signatures or profiles cannot be commercial in nature or they will be removed by BleepingComputer. You may not put links in your signature soliciting donations unless you are in certain member groups. Those member groups that are allowed will be expressly notified. If you have a personal website or off-site help resource, that is more than fine, but you can not sell products or services through your signature. Multiple links to the same site, unless for a very specific reason, are not permitted in a signature and will be removed.
• Avatars must be in good taste. This means no vulgar or violent images, pornography, or profanity. Avatars that are found to be inappropriate will be removed at the discretion of the staff.
• Linking to hate, anti-Semitic, racist, pornography, warez, or other illegal sites is not permitted.
• Links in your signature must be unobtrusive and can not use formatting so that attention is brought to them.
• Member’s display names can not be email addresses. This rule is in place to protect you from spam bots who will pick up your email address and spam you.
• Members may have only one account on this forum. There is no need to have more than one.
• Any impersonation of a user from these forums, in any mode of communication, is strictly prohibited and will result in a banning.
• Linked and locked topics are pruned regularly to reduce page clutter. If you have a question about where your topic went, please PM a Moderator or Administrator before starting a new topic asking where it went, or posting a duplicate of the original topic. We will be happy to provide you with a link to the new location, or a reason why it was locked and/or removed.

Violation of any of these rules can lead to a banning of the user from our Web Site and a deletion of their account. The consequences will be determined by the Staff on a case by case basis.

When posting you agree that the administrators and the moderators of this forum have the right to modify, delete, edit or close any topic, signature, account, or profile data at any time that they see fit. If you have any questions concerning this, please do not start a new thread, but rather private message to an administrator or moderator.

contact us