Scam emails are claiming to infect computers with WannaCry ransomware
In May 2017, hundreds of thousands of computers and networks became infected with the notorious WannaCry ransomware.
Thousands of people noticed their computers demanding a ransom or lose all their files. The ransomware had infected their devices, encrypted their files and was asking for money in Bitcoin to retrieve those files. Millions of files were lost. It was very bad.
Because it was among the first large scale attacks that including the particularly nasty ransomware strain of malware, the WannaCry name is well known. And that is why over the weekend spammers have been capitalising on the name to panic email recipients into sending them money.
Sponsored Content. Continued below...
A surge of reports suggest spammers are trying to trick victims into believing their devices have been infected with ransomware. The emails claim that the recipient’s device has been infected by WannaCry ransomware, and the recipient only has until tomorrow to pay the spammers lots of money in Bitcoin or the WannaCry ransomware gets activated and they lose their files.
Don’t worry if you got such an email. It’s a bluff. Your device isn’t affected. The email is simply trying to alarm email recipients into thinking their devices are infected with a well-known example of ransomware, when they’re not. The crooks are hoping recipients will pay up, even though they’ve not really been infected.
The best course of action is to simply ignore the email. Scammers played out a similar scheme on email users in the days following the WannaCry attacks, and this latest surge of emails is just doing the same.
Continued below...
Thanks for reading, we hope this article helped, but before you leave us for greener pastures, please help us out.
We're hoping to be totally ad-free by 2025 - after all, no one likes online adverts, and all they do is get in the way and slow everything down. But of course we still have fees and costs to pay, so please, please consider becoming a Facebook supporter! It costs only 0.99p (~$1.30) a month (you can stop at any time) and ensures we can still keep posting Cybersecurity themed content to help keep our communities safe and scam-free. You can subscribe here
Remember, we're active on social media - so follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, Instagram and X