Image: © depositphotos.com/Elnur_
According to this rather threatening email, if you scan your computer, you will find a trojan that is “already too late to fix”.
The sender then warns that if you want him not to “completely f**k up your life”, you will need to send $500 in cryptocurrency bitcoin to a specified address.
The sender further warns, that if you ignore the payment request, you’d better have a “backup plan for your entire life”. He instructs you to contact him via email if you have any doubts about his claims.
But, in fact, the email is just a lame attempt to trick gullible recipients into panicking and sending their money to a grubby little crook.
The sender has not really put a trojan on your computer and unless you make contact and send money, he has no power to “f**k up your life”. Instead, he has simply sent out thousands of identical messages in the hope that at least a few recipients will fall for the ruse.
If victims contact the scammer, he will no doubt reply with some technical-sounding nonsense that may be enough to convince those less tech-savvy that he really has installed a trojan.
This scam is just a lazy version of those annoying sextortion scam emails, which falsely claim that the sender has recorded you visiting “adult” websites and will share the video to all of your friends if you don’t pay up.
If you receive one of these messages, just hit delete and get on with your day.