Is the Porn Blackmail Scam Real?
A new surge of extortion scam emails is making its way towards vulnerable users and is giving them quite a scare. The scammers behind those emails use sensitive subjects in order to scare people into paying hundreds or even thousands of dollars, and threaten to reveal personal information. But however legitimate they may seem, they are nothing more than scams.
Porn Blackmail Message Body
Hello there.
Hopefully you will not care about my language sentence structure, considering that i’m from Denmark. I toxified your gadget with a malware and im in possession of your personal info out of your operating-system.
It was established on an adult webpage and then you’ve picked the video clip and it, my program instantly got into your os.
Afterward, your front-camera recorded you hand partying, on top of that i caught a movie that you’ve looked at.
Immediately after some time in addition, it pulled out all your device contact info. If you wish me to get rid of your everything i have got – give me 580 eu in bitcoin it’s a crypto-currency. It is my btc account transfer address : 1EgVM7XxsAW74NUXH9FcxTWSthbtVz2Kjt
At this point you will have 24 hrs. to make up your mind As soon as i will receive the transfer i’ll eliminate this footage and every little thing thoroughly. If not, you should be sure that this footage will be forwarded to your friends.
A classic extortion email claims that the receiver has been caught visiting adult websites and was filmed via his/her own webcam while doing it. Supposedly, the scammer sets up some kind of malware on adult video websites and when someone watches certain videos, the malware installs onto their computer, films the victim via webcam, steals personal information (social media logins, contact lists, etc.) and makes a double-screen video which shows the adult video viewed and the webcam view. Scammers then threaten the victim by claiming that the video will be sent to all contacts obtained unless a payment is made. There are many different variations of this scam, but that is the basis of it.
Attempted Blackmail scam watching Porn
Some scammers go a step further and try to frighten victims by revealing their passwords for certain accounts. Those passwords are obtained from various data leaks, which is also how they get the email addresses. If such an email actually displays a correct password, it should be changed immediately. However, it does not mean that the scam is any more legitimate than the others, it just means the password was part of a data leak and various cyber criminals might have it. Passwords should be changed regularly and be complex, particularly for accounts dealing with money and a lot of personal information.
If the victim wants the video and the information acquired from the computer to be deleted, they are asked to pay money. While the sum requested differs from one email to another, scammers generally ask that victims pay from $2000 to $3000 in Bitcoins. In order to further intimidate the victim, scammers give a deadline within which the payments must be made. Otherwise, the video is sent to acquired contacts. Due to the sensitive subject used, people might immediately panic and end up paying the requested money. However, such emails are scams, and the receiver has not been filmed via the webcam, nor has there been any kind of monitoring malware installed.
It is important to understand that these kinds of emails will always be scams, no matter how convincing they may seem. They can be safely ignored but if they display a used password, it should be immediately changed.