Pipex Blackmail Scam.

There are now dozens of posts on the TalkTalk Community Forums about users, almost exclusively Pipex (but the odd Homecall) email user receiving threatening blackmailing emails. We have infected your pc and have footage of you watching porn etc., payment in bitcoin is usually demanded.

Some of the emails received show account password, a very small number of users have said that the passwords are genuine, but very old (and/or no longer used).

The standard advice is (as a minimum) to change your email account password just in case. Most users are unable to do this themselves (because of the way the legacy accounts have been processed over the years) and a request to the TT community forum staff to have the password changed manually has to be made.

The "waiting list" for password changes has now reached 7 days - so a request sooner rather than later should be considered.

Iefbr14

Edited by iefbr14 (Tue 13-Nov-18 09:52:37)

This is a widespread scam and not targeting old Pipex customers specifically

The lists of email and passwords appear to be fairly old

Yes I fully agree that it is a world wide, persistent and very nasty scam.

But on the TalkTalk forums virtually every single user involved is a Pipex customer. Not a single report of any TalkTalk.net users being effected. The incidence of reports from Pipex customers has increased very dramatically over the last few weeks.

As far as the TalkTalk "universe" is concerned Pipex is the principle (almost exclusive) target - so of all the TalkTalk and legacy user bases potentially the most at risk customers, which was why I thought it may be of benefit to any Pipex users reading the TalkTalk (and Pipex) section of this forum to be aware of this issue (especially as some users do use the same email address and password for years).

Forewarned is forearmed. A simple headsup to a known target audience.

Easy fix for this, watch porn on your PS4

We have infected your pc and have footage of you watching porn etc., payment in bitcoin is usually demanded.

Anyone falling for that after all the reports of these types of scams doing the rounds really shouldn't be anywhere near a PC in the first place.

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With 711 million email addresses on the comprised list, it's far from just Pipex users. It could well be that there was a breach of a Pipex database at some point.

You can check your own (and others) email address at www.haveibeenpwned.com and it'll tell your of your address has been found in the main dump or any of the other breaches that they know about.

Also Google "Onliner Spambot" and it'll bring up lots of stories of when it was first released around August 2017.

Yes, definitely not confined to Pipex.

A Sky / Yahoo e-mail user reported the identical scam last wednesday:
https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Email/Threatening-spam-...

Yes - as I have previously said - I know this is not a specific Pipex only issue.

But I am a TalkTalk customer and on the TalkTalk community forums all the reports (and there are a lot of them at the moment) are from legacy email customers and virtually all of those are Pipex.

I am not and never have said this is a Pipex only problem, but the activity directed at Pipex customers at the moment seems to be at a significantly high and unusual level. Not a single report from any TalkTalk.net customer (on the forums as far as I can see).

Pipex are very much the current target as far as the TT customer base is concerned - so a little warning to be extra vigilant was I thought a reasonable step.

TalkTalk and Pipex users on these forums may not visit the TT community forums so may be unaware of this increased level of scamming activity.

Chippy_Tea_ - not everyone may be as IT literate as yourself, unfortunately not everyone is as IT literate as would be ideal. These scammers would not be in business if they weren't making money from somewhere, which would imply that some people are paying up.

Education is always the best defense against scammers - but if you aren't aware of the threats then you are vulnerable. But I have raised a flag and that is all I intended to do.

In reply to pete_thompson ……


"The truth is, your identity already has been stolen."

Frank Abagnale

Edited by iefbr14 (Tue 13-Nov-18 19:51:12)

I got one the other day saying i had missed a delivery, and to click on this link to enter my details so they could redeliver it. If you tried already, why do you need my address again?

I read somewhere that they make these scams look as silly and fake as possible, so they know the people falling for them are gullible and open to more scams