“Have you heard about Pegasus?” Email is a fake sextortion email. The sender claims that your device has been infected with the Pegasus malware and that your information has been stolen. Recipients are threatened with nonexistent private videos, and a payment of $1,600 is demanded of them. Fortunately, this is nothing more than a scam and it can be ignored.

 

 

“Have you heard about Pegasus?” email is part of a large-scale spam campaign that threatens to expose users’ sensitive information if they do not agree to pay around $1,600. The email tries to convince users that their devices have been infected with the Pegasus malware, which allowed the sender full access to the device. No matter how convincing the email may seem, the contents are all fake. Your device is not infected with Pegasus, nor has your information been stolen by a malicious actor. This is a simple spam email campaign that aims to trick users into paying what’s essentially a ransom demand.

Hello, I’m going to share important information with you.
Have you heard about Pegasus?
You have become a collateral victim. It’s very important that you read the information below.

Your phone was penetrated with a “zero-click” attack, meaning you didn’t even need to click on a malicious link for your phone to be infected.
Pegasus is a malware that infects iPhones and Android devices and enables operator of the tool to extract messages, photos and emails,
record calls and secretly activate cameras or microphones, and read the contents of encrypted messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Telegram and Signal.

Basically, it can spy on every aspect of your life. That’s precisely what it did.
I am a blackhat hacker and do this for a living. Unfortunately you are my victim. Please read on.

As you understand, I have used the malware capabilities to spy on you.
And by that I mean that I have collected your parts of your private life.

My only goal is to make money. And I have perfect leverage for this.
As you can imagine in your worst dream, I have videos of you exposed during the most private moments of your life, when you are not expecting it.

I personally have no interest in them, but there are public websites, that have perverts loving that content.
As I said, I only do this to make money and not trying to destroy your life. But if necessary, I will publish the videos.
If this is not enough for you, I will make sure your contacts, friends and everybody you know see those videos as well.

Here is the deal. I will delete the files after I receive 0.035 Bitcoin (about 1600 US Dollars).
You need to send that amount here 1AXNYLDEG5YEzc2eyUh7SUYYKeRUaRwseu

I will also clear your device from malware, and you keep living your life.
Otherwise, shit will happen.

The fee is non negotiable, to be transferred within 2 business days.

Obviously do not try to ask for any help from anybody unless you want your privacy to be violated.
I will monitor your every move until I get paid. If you keep your end of the agreement, you wont hear from me ever again.
Take care.

The “Have you heard about Pegasus?” email scam is a classic example of a sextortion scam. It claims to have hacked the recipient’s device by installing malware, which supposedly allowed them to steal sensitive information as well as make videos of users’ “private moments”. The sender threatens to send all the stolen information (as well as a video) to users’ contacts unless the recipient agrees to pay 0.035 Bitcoin, which is around $1,366 at the time of writing.

The email is written using threatening and degrading language to alarm the users as much as possible and make them feel frightened. And threatening to expose potentially highly sensitive content is a good tactic for cybercriminals because users panic and react without thinking twice. Furthermore, this particular email mentions the Pegasus malware as the tool that allowed the malicious actor supposed access to your device. Pegasus malware is real and very dangerous, so if the email recipient were to research it, they would find information saying it’s real.

If it hasn’t been made clear yet, this “Have you heard about Pegasus?” email is nothing more than a scam. Your computer is not infected, and you certainly do not need to pay anything. You can safely ignore the email and its contents.

How did malicious actors get your email address?

When users receive sextortion emails, they may wonder how their email addresses end up in the hands of cybercriminals. The answer to that is very simple. If you start receiving malicious emails, your email address has been leaked by some service you used it for. Unfortunately, users’ email addresses and other information is leaked all the time. Leaked details end up on hacker forums, where other malicious actors can purchase them. You can check whether yours has been leaked on haveibeenpwned. There’s not much you can do even if it has leaked but you can at least be on higher alert.

In some cases, sextortion emails also reveal users’ passwords, ones they actually use. This is a good tactic and usually what convinces users to pay. Because in users’ minds, how else would the sender have their password if not because they were able to hack their device? In reality, passwords are obtained the same way as email addresses. When a service does not have proper security and does not secure passwords, the passwords can get exposed during a breach. Passwords then end up on hacker forums where other cyber criminals can buy them for their malicious purposes. If you receive such an email that contains your password, you need to change your password immediately. Passwords should also not be used for more than one account.

Remove “Have you heard about Pegasus?” Email Scam

If you receive this sextortion email, you can just delete “Have you heard about Pegasus?” Email Scam from your inbox. You do not need to pay anything because this email is a scam.

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