The CIA Is Not Coming For You

The CIA Is Not Coming For You

It’s a stubborn spam that keeps sticking around and now scammer seem to become more aggressive even using the name of the Central Intelligence Agency or CIA . We first reported about this in July of last year, and now have come across another scary version. You will receive an e-mail supposedly from somebody working at the CIA, claiming that you are part of an international CIA investigation involving  “storage and distribution of electronic materials involving underage children.” In the e-mail, the “CIA” person claims that if you pay 10,000 US dollars in Bitcoin, he will edit your files and your name will be removed from the alleged CIA child pornography case.  Unfortunately these scams appear to become more and more sophisticated. Even though, at first glance this e-mail may appear to come from the CIA, don’t fall for it.

Take a closer look at the CIA text in the blue box and you’ll spot some red flags that show you it is a scam. The content is quite well written and the dates are very specific. You may notice that the spellings are not in U.S. English which is the spelling the CIA would use. For instance, Paedophilia is standard spelling  in Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand of pedophilia. Furthermore, the email address in this example was sent from cherrietharp@tiqk.cia-it.cf.  It is rather unlikely that the CIA would switch to the top-level domain .cf  of the Central African Republic.

“Always be skeptical of suspicious e-mails,” cautions  Planetguide.com owner Brett Bauman. “If you think it’s spam, it probably is,” he added. An unsolicited CIA e-mail will always appear suspicious.

Should You Be Concerned?

This is a scam it was not sent by an CIA employee. This e-mail also does not mean  you are part of an CIA child porn investigation. However, it could mean that your password has been leaked through some sort of recent data breach. If you are still using that same password, you need to change it right now!  Of course, do not pay and do not respond to the alleged CIA e-mail.

Just In Case

As we said this is a scam, however, hackers can access your computer using spying software. Make sure you don’t have any malware on your computer by installing anti-malware or anti-virus protection and perform a deep scan.