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I'm in trouble.

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Eh I still not sure going about this on his terms is the thing you should do. Why do all that just for 45 bucks, either he hasnt laid down all his cards (assuming phishing and maleware is also involved) and he's playing you, and/or you're not the only one. Him being 'good faith' is just part of his manipulation. Either way there is 0 reason to trust these bastards. So far the only contingency plan is: charge back, as if he hadnt thought of that? Anyway most likely he is not going to give your account back and better to just come up with another option. I suppose if we all pitch in a tiny bit there isnt much to lose for such a miniscule chance of 'good faith', but dont expect any.
 
Option 2 sounds the best. If he's lying and doesn't give the account back, you're ****** anyways, so paying 45 bucks really doesn't matter at that point. Have you contacted your family?
 
I wouldn't really pay him even if e-mail containted important projects.

This what I would do

1.I would contact people I know from my list and warn them to not open any attachments from me (from other device).

2.I would contact employer (assuming you've one) and inform them of the issue.They should undestand (unless you're completly reckless).

3.I would contact services in which you used your account in order to regain it.

4.I would contact the police.

5.Download some programs to scan and remove any spyware and malware from your computer (even if he got your password by geting acess to database from another website, remember to have separate password for an e-mail).

You did some of these, now you've to purse those options.

If he has sensitive information on you, he likely already made a copy of it. If you pay him that 45 $ he will likely sniff out that information is important for you (this may be why he charged only 45 $ as people may be more willing to send lower amount of money at first and if they do account and information on it are cleary important to the to attempt charge more) and given guy is a hacker that exorts money out of people, I highly doubt person has strong moral compass to keep his word and not grab opportunity to get some more cash.In addition to that, you make yourself open to future such attacks, as person (or group of people) will remember you as someone who could be exorted for some money. If he wont' get money, at least person will unlikely target you in the future as you won't be worth an effort.

I want also to note you may not be able to charge back, as they use reviewing system and if they deem reasons you are charging back invalid, you won't be able to charge it back, especially if there won't be money back on the account to charge back.

So I think "don't negotiate with terrorists" is a good tactic here.
 
BigSmoke4269 said:
Option 2 sounds the best. If he's lying and doesn't give the account back, you're ****** anyways, so paying 45 bucks really doesn't matter at that point.
Click to expand...
This is correct, yes. It is possible that the account won't be given back, but many ransomware cases also result in the accounts legitimately being released, so I would recommend at least giving it a try, in lack of better options.

Again, the Swedish police is severely understaffed, technically inexperienced, and constantly overwhelmed by massive amounts of rapes and murders. This is almost a lawless country at this point, with Denmark setting up permanent border controls to Sweden because of all the severe crime, and as such the police are not able to help with cases such as this anymore.

Also, you can all choose to stay anonymous while donating money now, so I would appreciate if our community is willing to help him out with this.
 
DbzDB2 said:
am i missing something though. sorry i dont mean to sound like a douche but its literally just 45 dollars hes asking for. OP doesnt have 45 bucks?
Click to expand...
Swedish currency, Krona, is extremely low compared to the USD.

Have you read what OP said? From OP's message: "45 USD is worth nearly 500 bucks of my country's own currency". I checked by myself, Krona is so low: 1 Krona is 0,10 USD.
 
Since this isn't a malware initiating this, but directly a black hat hacker so his luck may be much tougher. Though one time I got out of a ransom case by system restore then changed all my passwords and reformatted the computer. I was about to wire transfer a sum of money but was advised not to give into it.
 
I think that it is more likely that somebody on the black market simply used an account password list released on Pastebin. They usually go by quantity over quality and hold a lot of accounts at ransom at once to force them to pay. They seldom go in-depth with each specific random victim.
 
Hey, so this has happened to me before. Or, almost this; close enough to be proximate. The first thing you want to do is CALL customer support for your email account. They can help you in ways you can't otherwise do, since the guy has changed your password and verification email. At the very least they should be able to freeze ALL access to your email account and Google Drive while they look into it or while you contact the police.

Don't pay the guy, at least not until you've tried calling customer support and/or the police first. Even if the hacker gives you your account info back, it's too easy for them to keep something from you or just keep tabs on you to trust that they'll just leave you alone. If they were going to do that, they'd charge more. A small payment just proves to them you're willing to give them money rather than risk fighting back. A bigger payment is more likely someone looking for a one and done (at least that's the advice I was given at the time, so take it with a pinch of salt).


EDIT: re-reading the first post, I made a mistake in thinking you didn't call customer support. I'd think you should still be able to get them to do something by pointing out you didn't change your PW and maybe sending them a picture of the blackmail message. I would still try them again and the police before giving the hacker money. But that's just me. Being faced with the threat of losing data is scary AF, so I understand if you think paying is the best option for you.
 
That's also a great option. They have far more control on your account than that scumbag. The problem is, he wrote that he will know about him trying to show his account to anyone else. It's very, very unlikely but he can have control over your camera or mic in your PC, so I recommend you to stay away from that while calling. Just in case.
 
I know that everyone is saying to go ahead and give him the $45 dollars, but to be honest there needs to be a greater end goal here. This scenario is no different than someone calling you on behalf of the US IRS saying they're going to fine you for not paying "taxes" and the only way to get out of it is by paying THEM.

Think about it, if this hacker has access to all your current PII, what makes you think he doesn't already have your bank information? It's entirely possible the $45 dollars is a ruse.
 
Let's not overestimate them, please.

As he said, the hacker has shown no influence to anything that is outside the primary Gmail account. Paradox has also mentioned that his credit card is locked, which means the hacker would need physical access to his phone to be able to access the really sensitive information, even if he logged onto his bank account through that email.
 
Dude, my advice is distribute my info onto other accounts. I have 40 accounts which 20 I have my private info stored onto and 20 others which have the same info. I got hacked once and I deleted my old hacked account and used my other one
 
I agree with Kepekley23. Again, the police in Sweden is completely overwhelmed nowadays and unable to help with almost anything, and 45$ is not a lot of money. It seems best to pay and see what happens first. However, if it is possible to somehow get in contact with Google's email support, that is useful as well.
 
Hey, I did some poking around and found this: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6294825?hl=e

It's a page with a list of of hacked/missing account issues and things steps that can be done to address them. I'm looking for a phone number to call directly, but this page could be a start, assuming you haven't already been there. Hope this helps, and I'll update this if I find anything else.

EDIT: Ok, so good news and bad news. Bad news is that there isn't a general customer support phone number. You have to manage using online options for almost everything. But that's the good news: almost everything. The one thing Google will actually directly work with people on is Google Drive. If you go here: https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2424384?hl=e and make/log into a google account, you should see an option down at the bottom that says "need more help?" that allows you to ask to be called or start a chat. I'd go with call, given that your computer seems compromised. Even if you have to create a new account to do this, I'm pretty sure they can still help you if you explain the problem, as it is directly related to Google Drive and you literally can't access your original account in order to contact customer support on it.

I really hope that you can get everything back, however that happens. If anything here helps, that's great. People like this who hold information or reputation for ransom are just absolute scum.
 
Try to sabotage the account, but make sure you tell everybody you know before you do it, he can't use the contents of your e-mail if the e-mail is completly worthless, maybe ask a white hat hacker to get back your account, and maybe change the password first, either way, try to pay him, he is just a loser with a PC.
 
@GenerixGamerName Err...the hacker changed his password and locked him out of his account. He can't change or sabotage anything at the moment. I guess a counter-hacker is technically an option but...really? Right now it's kind of "pray Google support can work well enough fast, or pay the guy and hope he does what he says he will."
 
@ LordNidhoggr, thank you for telling me that, I am glad you pointed that out, I did not read the Message as clearly as possible, Also @Paradox, try to walk into the nearest google operated building (sorry for wording it like that.) and tell them about the situation, they can probably track him down, also report him on facebook, Zucc's team will most likely do something about it, ah crap what am I doing, I cannot say what others have said, try to follow their advice and contact google any way you can, Kudos to all of you people and Godspeed.
 
@Paradox: I'm very sorry to have to ask this, since I'm sure you're in quite a bit of distress right now and need all the help you can get, but: Your request for donations is a violation against Fandom's Terms of Use, which state that you must not Post, upload, transmit, share, or store unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, solicitations, "spam", or any other type of unauthorized solicitatio. This rule is important, since Fandom would otherwise be opening doors to scammers right here on this site and put other users into a similar unfortunate situation as you are in now.

Please remove the donation link from your post. We won't delete your post or block you, since you obviously just came here in search of support, but I'm afraid the link can't stay. I hope you'll understand, and that you'll be able to resolve this issue without too much damage done!
 
I will remove the link from his OP myself.

Does that rule prevent him from linking it to someone who goes on his Message Wall saying they want to help or not?
 
Mira Laime said:
@Paradox: I'm very sorry to have to ask this, since I'm sure you're in quite a bit of distress right now and need all the help you can get, but: Your request for donations is a violation against Fandom's Terms of Use, which state that you must not Post, upload, transmit, share, or store unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, solicitations, "spam", or any other type of unauthorized solicitatio. This rule is important, since Fandom would otherwise be opening doors to scammers right here on this site and put other users into a similar unfortunate situation as you are in now.

Please remove the donation link from your post. We won't delete your post or block you, since you obviously just came here in search of support, but I'm afraid the link can't stay. I hope you'll understand, and that you'll be able to resolve this issue without too much damage done!
Click to expand...
Aww man, that's a shame.
 
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