Sextortion is rampant as botnet sends emails demanding bitcoins as ransom

Check Point researchers have discovered that an existing botnet is now using a new trick to nab victims using sextortion emails for bitcoins in ransom.

The decade-old botnet, called Phorpiex or Trik, carries out the campaign by sending persuasive emails to victims, mentioning their confidential passwords, threatening to publish their private videos, Fast Company reports.

Phorpiex is capable of generating up to 30,000 emails per hour with each campaign covering up to 27 million potential victims. In over five months of the study, victims paid 11 BTC or approximately USD 89,000.