‘We Hacked Your Website’ Blackmail Scam

Security experts say a spike in email scams linked to coronavirus is the worst they have seen in years and cyber criminals are targeting individuals as well as industries, including aerospace, transport, manufacturing, hospitality, healthcare and insurance with a blackmail threat. 

According to this message, which is targeted at website owners, the senders have hacked your website and extracted your database. The message threatens to leak or sell the stolen database, destroy your online reputation and de-index your site in search engines unless you send $2000 in Bitcoin within 5 days.

 Phishing emails written in English, French, Italian, Japanese, and Turkish languages have been found.

Its A Bluff 
Often the message that we have just hacked your website is just a bluff designed to panic inexperienced website owners into sending money to criminals. The senders have not really hacked your site or stolen your database.

In fact, they distribute large numbers of identical messages to many different websites in the hope that just a few recipients will fall for the ruse and pay up. Even if only a few site owners are taken in by the trick and send money, the scam campaign will turn out profitable for the online criminals who launched it.

These crooks use predefined templates for their scam messages and simply add in the URL of the site being targeted.  The messages are often sent via the targeted website’s contact form.

Of course, if hackers had really taken control of your site as claimed in the messages,  they could easily prove this to you in various ways. For example, they can make visible changes to the site, or send a sample of the customer information they claim to have stolen. Instead, they send a generic email that claims that they have hacked your site but offer not the slightest shred of proof that they have actually done so.

Don’t Respond – Just Delete
If you receive one of these messages, do not respond to it.  Do not send money or information. Just delete the message.
If your site had really been hacked, you would likely receive alerts via your site security scanners, your hosting company, your customers, or Google Search Console. There are also various methods that you can check yourself.

Similar to Fake Blackmail Sextortion Scams
These scammers use a similar tactic to that used by sextortion scammers who distribute emails falsely claiming that they have recorded you visiting a porn site and will send the compromising video to all of your contacts if you don’t send money. As with the hacked site versions, the sextortion emails are just bluffs designed to panic people into sending Bitcoin.

The scam message will say that they have hacked your website and copied your databases by using vulnerabilities within your site. They then tend to say that the database will soon be leaked, or sold to the highest bidder. They then say that you can stop this by paying a fee of £2/3k within 5 days. Once you pay we will stop and not ever bother you again. 

Given the impact on the security of businesses and individuals alike, it's essential to avoid falling victim to online scams and practice good digital hygiene: Businesses should ensure that secure remote access technologies are in place and configured correctly, including the use of multi-factor authentication, so that employees can conduct business just as securely from home.

BBC:        Hoax-Slayer:      Hacker News: 

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