If you accidentally install Troldash (via spam email) on your computer, it will encrypt your hard drive and lock up your files. Troldash will display an email address to contact the criminal, who will offer to sell you the key to decrypt your hard drive. Natalia Kolesova, a researcher at the security firm Checkpoint, intentionally installed Troldash on a test machine and engaged in an email exchange with the scammer to see if he or she would negotiate the 250 euro ransom.
Posing as a victim named Olga, the researcher contacted the scam artist, and received a reply with instructions to pay 250 euros to get the files back.
Suspecting the reply was automated, Ms Kolesova pressed for a more human response, asking more details about how to transfer the money, and pleading with the hacker to not make them pay.
Responding in Russian, the scammer offered to accept 12,000 roubles, a discount of around 15%. After Ms Kolesova pleaded further, the email response read: "The best I can do is bargain."
Eventually the unknown man or woman was talked into accepting 7,000 roubles – 50% less than the first demand.
"Perhaps if I had continued bargaining, I could have gotten an even bigger discount," Ms Kolesova concluded.
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