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.
An example of the scam email:
Importance Notice
After considerable thought and with an ache in my heart, I have decided that the time has come to close down the Hoax-Slayer website.These days, the site does not generate enough revenue to cover expenses, and I do not have the financial resources to sustain it going forward.
Moreover, I now work long hours in a full-time and physically taxing job, so maintaining and managing the website and publishing new material has become difficult for me.
And finally, after 18 years of writing about scams and hoaxes, I feel that it is time for me to take my fingers off the keyboard and focus on other projects and pastimes.
When I first started Hoax-Slayer, I never dreamed that I would still be working on the project all these years later or that it would become such an important part of my life. It's been a fantastic and engaging experience and one that I will always treasure.
I hope that my work over the years has helped to make the Internet a little safer and thwarted the activities of at least a few scammers and malicious pranksters.
A Big Thank You
I would also like to thank all of those wonderful people who have supported the project by sharing information from the site, contributing examples of scams and hoaxes, offering suggestions, donating funds, or helping behind the scenes.I would especially like to thank David White for his tireless contribution to the Hoax-Slayer Facebook Page over many years. David's support has been invaluable, and I can not thank him enough.
Closing Date
Hoax-Slayer will still be around for a few weeks while I wind things down. The site will go offline on May 31, 2021. While I will not be publishing any new posts, you can still access existing material on the site until the date of closure.Thank you, one and all!
Brett Christensen,
Hoax-Slayer
