Data Exploitation and Illicit Sales

Attackers offer or dangle data they obtained illegitimately: attendee lists from conferences the recipient attended, contact databases of industry decision makers, competitor or customer records, leaked internal documents, or stolen credentials. The lure asks the recipient to buy the data, pay to have their own data removed from sale, or open a sample. The lists are scraped, recycled, or invented, and an attached "sample" can carry the actual payload.