Faketortion Scam Demands Money From Daters
By: Jim Stickley and Tina Davis
October 28, 2017
Another scam is preying on online daters. This one not only takes advantage of those looking for love, but also adds an element of malicious surprise. An email is sent that claims to have installed malware onto the users’ systems and only a payment of approximately $320 worth of Bitcoin will save the daters from ultimate embarrassment when the scammers threaten to post private details to the world. Those “details,” you may be wondering, include some videos of the victims in compromising positions.
The good news is that the scam is a complete ruse. There is no malware and there are no compromising videos. The term being used to describe this is faketortion. The bad news is that scams like this will increase in size, scope and accuracy as cybercriminals learn how to weaponize all the available data available for sale on the Dark Web about all of us. Several dating sites have had breaches, so it would make sense to match up that data with the Equifax or Yahoo breached data. A phishing campaign with that direct knowledge would be very scary.
Forcepoint came across the campaign between August 11 and 18 and found over 33,500 related email messages. The company is confident it is all phony due to the scale; which would indicate several websites being compromised. None have been announced or found as breached that would prove its authenticity.
Online dating presents a myriad of risks all on its own. However, anyone receiving a threat of extortion should verify the claim before taking action. Use caution when filling in the profile information, so that not so much information is disclosed that it may be used against you.
In the case of this scam, it appears that work email addresses were specifically targeted, putting additional pressure on the potential victims and eluding to the work computer being compromised. So, if you do participate in looking for love online, pay attention to the email address used. If it wasn’t your work one (and it is recommended that it isn’t), then it’s obviously a scam.
Also make sure all security products are kept updated on all devices. Some of them will protect against threats like this one.
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