Settle your debt in order to avoid additional fees. EMAIL SCAM

What is “Settle your debt in order to avoid additional fees.” EMAIL?

Settle your debt in order to avoid additional fees. is a ‘sextortion’ scam. Sextortion is a scam that targets victims via Email/SMS/text messages. This scam tries to guilt victims into paying off someone claiming to have secretly recorded video or compromising information. Scammers use a database of stolen email credentials to send out scam messages to millions of people around the World. The messages are sent to email addresses exposed in previous known data breaches in which the user email address and password has been compromised.

In some cases, sextortion scam emails may contain real passwords that the victim has used in the past (or even uses). Usually passwords are appended to these messages as proof, that is, if the password was actually used by the victim, then what is described in the email is true. Scammers get these real passwords by buying them on darknet.
 

 

QUICK LINKS

• What is “Settle your debt in order to avoid additional fees.” EMAIL?
• Should you pay?
• What to do when you receive the scam email?

The Scam Email in detail

The “Settle your debt in order to avoid additional fees.” scam is not the only one of its kind, there are many similar ones. They all have similar features: spelling and grammatical errors, statement that the victim’s computer and webcam were hacked, threats that the attackers recorded a compromising video, and a ransom demand.

Depending on the scam, victims are given 24 to 48 hours to pay a ransom in Bitcoin. The sextortion scams also contain claims that the victim’s contact information was stolen, allegedly the hacker copied the victim’s contact list and social media credentials. And finally, Sextortion scams contain threats, the victims must pay a ransom, or compromising materials will be sent to their contacts.

Full text of the scam email:

Hi there!
Have you seen lately that an email sent by me to you from your own account?
Yeah, that merely concludes that I have gained a complete access to a device of yours.

For the past several months, you were under my close observation.
Still surprised how could that happen? The thing is, your device was infected by a malware from one of adult websites that you lately accessed.

It may seem complicated to you, nevertheless let me try to clear it out to you.

With aid of Trojan Virus, I gained full access to your PC as well as any other device in your possession.
That merely denotes that I am able to see you whenever I like just by turning on the camera and microphone in your PC, while you don’t even know about that.
Moreover, I have also obtained your entire contacts list, including your entire correspondence.

Indeed, you wonder, “But my PC is equipped with a valid antivirus, so how could that be possible?
Why haven’t I seen any warning?” To be frank, the reply is very straightforward: malware of mine is based on drivers,
whose signatures get updated on 4-hourly basis, causing it to become simply untraceable, and as result leaving your antivirus idle.

I got a video showing the way you are jerking off on my left screen, while on the right screen there is a video that you watched during your masturbation session.
Still unclear how bad that could become? One mouse click is enough to send that video to your entire list of social network, as well as e-mail contacts.
In addition, I can as well provide access to your entire e-mail correspondence as well as messengers that are currently in your use.

All you need to do to in order to avoid that from occurring – transfer $1490 (USD) in Bitcoin equivalent to my Bitcoin address
(if you still don’t know how that could be done, just use your browser and key-in: “Buy Bitcoin”).

Below is bitcoin address (BTC Wallet) of mine: 12mxxjxvHvXxRDmcZrnkt8gakD8P3Xp97p

Upon getting evidence of payment from your side, I will instantly proceed with removing those videos, and that is all, you won’t ever hear about me anymore.
You are left with 2 days (or 48 hours) to perform that transaction.
After opening this e-mail, I will get a notice, which will automatically start my timer countdown.

Any attempts to complain to authorities won’t be of any use to you, because this e-mail is simply untraceable, just like Bitcoin ID of mine.
I was working on this for quite an extended period of time; so do not even think that I can make a mistake.

In event that, I occasionally discover that you shared this message with anyone else,
I will straight away proceed with making your video public as stated earlier.

Good luck.

Typically, sextortion scams are sent via email, thousands at a time, and are part of larger spam campaigns. As with many other types of scams, scammers are evolving their methods to deliver their messages to potential victims. Such attacks can be personalized and sent out in smaller numbers to avoid detection. Scammers can use reputable services, change and personalize the content of each message, and avoid including links or attachments – all in an attempt to bypass security.

To summarize, the “Settle your debt in order to avoid additional fees.” email is just a Sextortion Scam. All claims and threats made in this email message are false. Therefore, recipients are not in danger, this email and similar emails can be safely ignored.

Should you pay?

The best advice is: Don’t pay the ransom! If you receive the sextortion scam email, just ignore the scammers’ empty threats. The best way to deal with the scam email is simply to move it to trash!

Threat Summary

Name	Settle your debt in order to avoid additional fees. SCAM
Type	Sextortion, Phishing, Bitcoin Blackmail Scam
Ransom amount	$1550, $1450, $1490 (USD)
Bitcoin Address	16trAbrqfAkfpN2zoJ2gQQdsYebkspgHpQ, 19hk5wJPDCSV6KexJPbgz28TdECKLnXgFt, 12mxxjxvHvXxRDmcZrnkt8gakD8P3Xp97p
Distribution method	spam email campaigns
Removal	If you gets an email like Settle your debt in order to avoid additional fees, our computer security experts recommend follow some easy steps below

Examples of such scams

There are many sextortion scams circulating via email. Scammers often change the content of emails in order to deceive victims and bypass the security system. Payment from your account, FINAL WARNING Email, Unfortunately, there are some bad news for you are other examples of sextortion scam emails.

What to do when you receive the scam email

We advice to someone who gets this fraudulence message:

• Do not panic.
• Do not pay a ransom.
• If there’s a link in the scam email, do not click it, otherwise you could unwittingly install malware or ransomware on your computer.
• Report the email spam to the FTC at https://www.ftc.gov/.
• Mark the scam email as SPAM/JUNK and delete it.
• Scan your computer for malware.
• Install an anti-phishing software.

How to scan your computer for malware

If you suspect that your computer is infected with malware, you accidentally clicked on a link in the scam email, or just want to scan your computer, then use one of the best free malware removal tools. MalwareBytes is an antivirus that can be used to perform a virus scan, detect and remove almost all the forms of malicious programs including ransomware, trojans, worms, adware, browser hijackers, potentially unwanted software and spyware. MalwareBytes has real-time protection that can defeat most malicious software and ransomware. Despite so many features, it does not reduce the performance of your computer. You can use MalwareBytes with any other antivirus without any conflicts.

First, please go to the link below, then click the ‘Download’ button in order to download the latest version of MalwareBytes.

When the downloading process is done, close all windows on your computer. Further, launch the file named MBSetup. If the “User Account Control” dialog box pops up like below, click the “Yes” button.

It will show the Setup wizard which will assist you install MalwareBytes on the computer. Follow the prompts and do not make any changes to default settings.

After the setup is complete successfully, press “Get Started” button. Then MalwareBytes AntiMalware will automatically run and you can see its main window such as the one below.

Next, click the “Scan” button for scanning your computer for malicious software and other security threats. A system scan can take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, depending on your computer. While MalwareBytes is scanning, you can see how many objects it has identified as threat.

When the scanning is done, the results are displayed in the scan report. In order to remove all threats, simply press “Quarantine” button.

We suggest you look at the following video, which completely explains the process of using MalwareBytes to remove malicious software.

If you are having issues with malware removal, then check out Kaspersky virus removal tool. It can easily remove trojans, spyware, browser hijackers, adware, worms and ransomware with all their components such as files, folders and registry entries. Visit the page linked below to download the latest version of Kaspersky virus removal tool for Windows.

How to protect yourself from phishing, malicious and misleading websites

If you want to protect yourself from phishing sites, install an ad blocking program like AdGuard. It can block malicious and misleading websites, stop unwanted ads and pop-ups while using Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox and Edge. So, if you like to surf the Internet and want to protect your computer from phishing scams, then AdGuard is your best choice.

Installing AdGuard is very easy. First you’ll need to download AdGuard by clicking on the link below.

After downloading it, double-click the downloaded file to start it. The “Setup Wizard” window will show up on the computer screen as displayed below.

Follow the prompts. AdGuard will then be installed and an icon will be placed on your desktop. A window will show up asking you to confirm that you want to see a quick guide as displayed on the screen below.

Click “Skip” button to close the window and use the default settings, or press “Get Started” to see an quick guidance which will assist you get to know AdGuard better.

Each time, when you start your system, AdGuard will start automatically and stop unwanted advertisements, block phishing, as well as other harmful or misleading websites. For an overview of all the features of the application, or to change its settings you can simply double-click on the AdGuard icon, which can be found on your desktop.

Finish words

If you receive a scam email that is similar but not the same as the example above, make sure you remove any personal info in this message, then post it as comment on this article. This helps us to warn users about current scams, monitor trends and disrupt scams where possible.