Lkpolo's profile

Problem Solver

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493 Messages

Friday, May 1st, 2020 3:00 PM

Closed

extortion emails

I've received three in the last three days. The first two were copied to abuse@comcast.net.   They were from outlook.com. I received the same form email from Comcast security. Are these emails investigated?  The third email went to my junk folder. Is anybody else getting them? Also I noticed the phishing emails for various things have been occurring over the last three days. 

Gold Problem Solver

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7.9K Messages

5 years ago

I've gotten a few of these lately, typically with hotmail or outlook addresses. There are lists of passwords and users that have come from hacked sites. The password used in these mails is a 'junk' password that I never use on anything important. Even funnier, this is a desktop computer with NO camera, so it's obviously just a scare tactic.

Frequent Visitor

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7 Messages

5 years ago

 My wife and I both received emails with old Comcast.net email passwords listed in them. We have changed them long ago. But we were wondering how much other information did they get? 

   In the emails it asked us to buy bitcoin ($3000 worth) and send it to an account. 

Frequent Visitor

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7 Messages

5 years ago

Yes both my wife and I received them ..

What I found ODD was they have OLD passwords in the emails.

That being the case .. I'm guessing there was a breach somwhere.

Contributor

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33 Messages

5 years ago

I also received about 4 of these emails last week.  I was really PO'd and decided to contact someone....like FBI as I was furious that they were sent and that they were trying to extort money.  I received a phone call from Mr. Charles who is the Chief of National Security and Cyber Section of Western District of Western Pennsylvania.  Yes I was shocked.  He explained some things that I already knew.....like it is almost impossible to find these people and bring them to prosecution as they are out of the USA and there needs to be reciprocal agreement for prosecution either by the country of location or the USA.  He said the Secret Service had just sent a bulletin to the Pittsburgh office of the FBI alerting them that these emails were making the rounds again.  Anyway, I was really pleased to hear that he and some of his staff have successfully prosecuted some of these worthless but savy people.  The US is seeking to collaborate with some foreign countries to have the guilty parties prosecuted in their country or returned to the US as was most recent case.  His office prosecuted some cyber criminals recently and won the cases.  He told me that alot of the problems originate out of Western Africa as well as countries surrounding Russia and Romania.  explained that the passwords can be easily obtained on websites like Linkin when there are security breaches.  They the criminals sell the lists on the "Dark Web".  They are the ones who ultimately send out the perverted emails.  I have to say that after talking with for about 20 minutes, I thanked him and his team of prosecutors for trying and in some cases, succeeding.  He admitted that these cases are very challenging at best.  Nice to know though that they are trying and having some successes.  He said the worst cases are those where bank records have been accessed and emptied.  I might also mention that private individuals aren't the only targets.  Big corporations and banks have also been targets.  

Expert

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31K Messages

5 years ago


@kdiver wrote:

Yes both my wife and I received them ..

What I found ODD was they have OLD passwords in the emails.

That being the case .. I'm guessing there was a breach somwhere.


Read my post upthread, as well as my reply to your other post.

Expert

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31K Messages

5 years ago


@kdiver wrote:

 My wife and I both received emails with old Comcast.net email passwords listed in them. We have changed them long ago. But we were wondering how much other information did they get? 

   In the emails it asked us to buy bitcoin ($3000 worth) and send it to an account. 


No security breach at Comcast.  Please read this article from Malwarebytes.

Contributor

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62 Messages

5 years ago

There are many threads on this "sextortion" scam.  The password was likely compromised in one of the many breaches at various companies where you used the same password.  There haven't been documented breaches of comcast (though it is possible).  There was a large hotel chain, Target, equifax, yahoo, and many others that had user data compromised.

 

Obviously change your password at any sites that still use that password, if any, otherwise just delete the email

Contributor

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67 Messages

5 years ago

Well, a 2015 old and known breach at Comcast...

Problem Solver

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493 Messages

5 years ago

The password in my email was not from Comcast although there was a report last year that a Comcast server leaked many years ago. You need to change passwords frequently and don’t reuse them plus use 2FA and an Authenticator app. My password was from an insignificant reading site. Don’t obsess over it. This is the new normal. People in other countries go to work every day and sit in front of a computer and try to hack you, me, our hospitals, universities etc.

Problem Solver

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493 Messages

5 years ago

Yes, I just started getting the emails. The password in my email was from years ago. I haven’t used it in years but the dark web had it.

Contributor

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24 Messages

5 years ago

These posts are all recent!

Contributor

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24 Messages

5 years ago

That doesn't help.  It was an old password, but it was mine.  I've already changed my passwords beginning a few years ago.  

New Poster

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1 Message

5 years ago

Received: from dovdir2-asc-03o.email.comcast.net ([96.114.154.159])

by dovback2-asc-13o.email.comcast.net with LMTP

id cOiLJZamsV54JgAAhRLzRA

(envelope-from )

 

Received: from dovpxy-asc-05o.email.comcast.net ([96.114.154.159])

by dovdir2-asc-03o.email.comcast.net with LMTP

id YPpDJZamsV4BcgAAJnjj+g

(envelope-from )

 

Received: from resimta-po-39v.sys.comcast.net ([96.114.154.159])

(using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits))

by dovpxy-asc-05o.email.comcast.net with LMTP id EKimAJGmsV52cQAAbkwxFQ

; Tue, 05 May 2020 17:47:02 +0000

Received: from APC01-SG2-obe.outbound.protection.outlook.com ([40.92.253.76])

by resimta-po-39v.sys.comcast.net with ESMTP

id W1efjIxMjhzW9W1eij0f7O; Tue, 05 May 2020 17:47:01 +0000

New Poster

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1 Message

5 years ago

This is exactly right.  I got the email twice and my wife got it once.  Both passwords were very old, but we made sure that none of passwords used today come close.  The common denominator is Comcast.  You don't even have to be that technical to do a phishing / ransomware campaign.  You can buy a kit and buy the password list from the dark web.  They send the campaign out to a high number of people hoping to get a couple of hits.  The funny part is that if someone falls for it, what's the chances of them knowing how to use crypto currency (bitcoin)?  LOL

Frequent Visitor

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5 Messages

5 years ago



When I "View Source," a very long list of gibberish (to me, that is) comes up. I don't have a "Select all" feature on the right click. Since this is so very long, still recommend copying and sending along with threatening email? I have two with same body content, but different made up names. They somehow got a password from a utility company (this has since been changed along with all other passwords). I notified the utility company and was told to check out the FBI web site. I did, but there is a long form one is asked to fill out. I did not want to do this. I'll await your response, thank you

 

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