# HELP! URGENT PLEASE!



## Viper_SA (19/8/21)

I received an email this morning. Sent from my own email address complete with my profile photo that's linked to it and all. The same address as mine to the letter. It said the following:

Hello, I'm going to share important information with you.
Have you heard about Pegasus?
You have become a collateral victim. It's very important that you read the information below.

Your phone was penetrated with a “zero-click” attack, meaning you didn't even need to click on a malicious link for your phone to be infected.
Pegasus is a malware that infects iPhones and Android devices and enables operator of the tool to extract messages, photos and emails,
record calls and secretly activate cameras or microphones, and read the contents of encrypted messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Telegram and Signal.

Basically, it can spy on every aspect of your life. That's precisely what it did.
I am a blackhat hacker and do this for a living. Unfortunately you are my victim. Please read on.

As you understand, I have used the malware capabilities to spy on you.
And by that I mean that I have collected your parts of your private life.

My only goal is to make money. And I have perfect leverage for this.
As you can imagine in your worst dream, I have videos of you exposed during the most private moments of your life, when you are not expecting it.

I personally have no interest in them, but there are public websites, that have perverts loving that content.
As I said, I only do this to make money and not trying to destroy your life. But if necessary, I will publish the videos.
If this is not enough for you, I will make sure your contacts, friends and everybody you know see those videos as well.

Here is the deal. I will delete the files after I receive 0.035 Bitcoin (about 1600 US Dollars).
You need to send that amount here xxxxx (changed for safety reasons) 

I will also clear your device from malware, and you keep living your life.
Otherwise, shit will happen.

The fee is non negotiable, to be transferred within 2 business days.

Obviously do not try to ask for any help from anybody unless you want your privacy to be violated.
I will monitor your every move until I get paid. If you keep your end of the agreement, you wont hear from me ever again.
Take care.

VOX confirmed that my email was cloned and reset my password. I dowoaded and ran Kaspersky before resetting my email password. Found nothing on the scan. The link in the message wasn't highlighted as most links are. Now I'm stuck. How do I change my Gmail password? All my stored passwords? Do I need to worry about my banking app's pin? Do I need to worry at all? I didn't reply or click on the link in the mail. Do I need to stop any cards at the bank? Really really in a flat spin over here. I'm bumming tranquillisers off colleagues. Anyone that had a similar experience or has advice please? I plan to go home later and get Kaspersky on my home laptop a d add all my devices. For now just got the free trial on the phone.

Reactions: Informative 2


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## Grand Guru (19/8/21)

Pegasus is a malware that was deisgned by an Israeli Security company and sold to a certain number of Governments in the "anti-terrorist" war triggered by the 9/11 attack. Governments went ahead and used it against their own people, other government officials - allies like enemies etc. The story made the headlines last month and some Presidents were victim to the said malware (French, German etc.)
I honestly doubt if your guy is genuinely in possession of anything... but everything is f.ing possible nowadays.

Reactions: Agree 2 | Thanks 1


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## Silver (19/8/21)

What phone do you have @Viper_SA ?
Do you have anything very personal to you on your phone?

at the least I would suggest changing your bank password using another computer or phone if you are able to

scary thing is it’s hard to tell whether this chap is bluffing or if they really are spying on you

Reactions: Agree 2


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## Viper_SA (19/8/21)

Silver said:


> What phone do you have @Viper_SA ?
> Do you have anything very personal to you on your phone?
> 
> at the least I would suggest changing your bank password using another computer or phone if you are able to
> ...



Tried changing my banking app's pin from work pc, but doesn't have that option. Need to change pin on the phone it looks like. Have a colleague coming over tonight to install new anti-virus and see if it originated on pc or phone. Then his IT friend made some recommendations. Will loose all my bookmarks etc, but what can I do. The fact that the service provider confirmed the hack on my email is what scared me. He did mention that if I seeked help shit would happen, and so far nothing has happened. Will do as much as I can tonight. I have no naked pics, so not worried about that. Just worried about some whatsapp con ersations going public


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## Silver (19/8/21)

That’s why I think one should always treat WhatsApp conversations like big brother is watching

in today’s digital era it’s not worth leaving digital traces that can come back to bite you

the only challenge is the online banking

For the rest I don’t mind if they post pics of me and my son playing his lego. Haha

Reactions: Like 1


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## Grand Guru (19/8/21)

For online banking apps, you can just change the primary trusted device to a second one if you have ot to your wife's eventually. And then you can change your pin safely


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## Hooked (19/8/21)

Oh. My. Vape. How awful!

It's easy to change your email password. Just click on "Forgot password" where you would log in and enter a new one.


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## vicTor (19/8/21)

"_Obviously do not try to ask for any help from anybody unless you want your privacy to be violated."_

Reactions: Funny 1


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## Viper_SA (19/8/21)

Grand Guru said:


> For online banking apps, you can just change the primary trusted device to a second one if you have ot to your wife's eventually. And then you can change your pin safely



You got me a bit here... Could you expand on the explanation please?


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## Viper_SA (19/8/21)

Hooked said:


> Oh. My. Vape. How awful!
> 
> It's easy to change your email password. Just click on "Forgot password" where you would log in and enter a new one.
> 
> View attachment 237293



Thanks, my service provider reset that password for me

Reactions: Like 1


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## Grand Guru (19/8/21)

Viper_SA said:


> Youkst me a bit here... Could you expand on the explanation please?


You can register a new device with your banking app then set it as the primary (trusted) device. Once you do that you can change your PIN on the new device.


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## Viper_SA (19/8/21)

Grand Guru said:


> You can register a new device with your banking app then set it as the primary (trusted) device. Once you do that you can change your PIN on the new device.



Ah, so I need to download the app on a different phone, then make that the default and then change the pin. Is that what you're saying? I tried from the website but couldnt find where and how to do it...

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Grand Guru (19/8/21)

Viper_SA said:


> Ah, so I need to download the app on a different phone, then make that the default and then change the pin. Is that what you're saying? I tried from the website but couldnt find where and how to do it...


Everytime you download the app on a new phone, it should ask you whether you want to make it your new trusted device. Besides, you can change that in the settings parameters anytime


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## Viper_SA (19/8/21)

Grand Guru said:


> Everytime you download the app on a new phone, it should ask you whether you want to make it your new trusted device. Besides, you can change that in the settings parameters anytime



Do you mean the settings parameters on the website or in the app? Sorry for all the stupid questions


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## Grand Guru (19/8/21)

Viper_SA said:


> Do you mean the settings parameters on the website or in the app? Sorry for all the stupid questions


On the app


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## Viper_SA (19/8/21)

Grand Guru said:


> On the app


Might bug you again later to help me figure that oit

Reactions: Like 1


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## Grand Guru (19/8/21)

Viper_SA said:


> Might bug you again later to help me figure that oit


PM if needed.


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## Adephi (19/8/21)

Alternatively you can just go straight in to the bank. I'm still old school like that.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Faiyaz Cheulkar (19/8/21)

its a bluff. dont fall for it. I read a similar post from another bloke on my Broadband not so long ago, a similar email claiming the hacker took over his computer and has some sensitive videos from his webcam, this guy realized after creating a post on myBroadband that he doesnt even have a webcam . 
Besides no one is interested in your willy . If I were you I would have just deleted this email. 

On a serious note, you dont have to be a hacker to send an email from any email address. That's why you have email headers. Check the email headers to see if it was really sent from your email address.

Reactions: Agree 1 | Funny 3


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## Viper_SA (19/8/21)

Faiyaz Cheulkar said:


> its a bluff. dont fall for it. I read a similar post from another bloke on my Broadband not so long ago, a similar email claiming the hacker took over his computer and has some sensitive videos from his webcam, this guy realized after creating a post on myBroadband that he doesnt even have a webcam .
> Besides no one is interested in your willy . If I were you I would have just deleted this email.
> 
> On a serious note, you dont have to be a hacker to send an email from any email address. That's why you have email headers. Check the email headers to see if it was really sent from your email address.


Yup, was confirmed by VOX service provider that the mail was cloned. Nothing showing up on Kaspersky scan thus far though


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## zadiac (20/8/21)

I received one once. I replied "Sure, go ahead. Publish away."
Nothing happened to this day. Never received another one and no reply to my reply.
Not saying it's nothing. Change all your passwords and make them difficult. Wipe your phone completely. Factory reset. Good luck with this.

Reactions: Thanks 1


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## Viper_SA (20/8/21)

Thanks for all the advice peeps. Was up till way past midnight with anti-virus and spyware software. Hope I've covered all my bases. Still a bit rattled that my email was hacked so easily with the password I had on it. Thought it was pretty bulletproof. Still need to change quite a few passwords, but believe it will be okay

Reactions: Winner 1


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## Faiyaz Cheulkar (20/8/21)

Viper_SA said:


> Yup, was confirmed by VOX service provider that the mail was cloned. Nothing showing up on Kaspersky scan thus far though


You mean confirmed by those idiots that call themselves "tech support engineers" ? 

Check the email headers, u can call me if u want I can assist. 


Sent from my SM-A730F using Tapatalk

Reactions: Agree 1 | Winner 2 | Thanks 1


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## CashKat88 (21/8/21)

Hey @Viper_SA , I think it's really just a scam, they are trying to get you scared and in a panic until you eventually give them the money, it's a good thing that you did not click on whatever link that was on the email but there are literally call centers run just to scam people.
And believe these people will say and do whatever they can to get you to send money.

You can actually watch some of these type of scams on YouTube, there is a guy named Jim browning(https://youtube.com/c/JimBrowning) on you tube, he is a master at bringing down these scammers and if you want to watch these scammers get trolled you can watch Kitboga(https://youtube.com/c/KitbogaShow) he is really entertaining and gets these scammers really mad. 

Give these channels a watch on YouTube... It's really entertaining and you can get a glimpse of how smart these scammers are but ultimately powerless if you don't give in to their scam

Reactions: Like 2 | Winner 1 | Thanks 1


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## Viper_SA (21/8/21)

Just finished with changing all my passwords on any site I still use. In the process all my bookmarks were categorised and arranged alphabetically. So some good came of it.

Reactions: Like 2


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## SmokeyJoe (22/8/21)

I work for one of the big 4 banks. I get these every month. I just reset my passwords and ignore it.

Reactions: Winner 1 | Thanks 1 | Informative 1


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## Resistance (22/8/21)

Viper_SA said:


> Just finished with changing all my passwords on any site I still use. In the process all my bookmarks were categorised and arranged alphabetically. So some good came of it.



They need to trace the mail you got back to its source. I'm pretty sure it traces back to Nigeria.
A few months back I inherited millions ,but I'd rather work for the money I earn. It's written that many more blessings will come from it.

Reactions: Funny 3


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## Hooked (25/8/21)

@Viper_SA 

https://www.news24.com/fin24/compan...e-cybersecurity-experts-say-dont-pay-20210825

Reactions: Thanks 1


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