According to this email, the sender installed software on an X-rated website that you visited and was able to make a video of you viewing the material on the site. And, claims the email, the software also collected all of your social media and email contacts.
The sender warns that, if you do not pay $1000 via Bitcoin within one day of opening the email, the compromising video will be sent to all of your contacts.
However, the email is just a scam designed to trick you into sending money to online criminals. The sender does not really have a compromising video of you as claimed.
Despite the claims in the scam message, the email is not specifically targeted at you. Instead, the scammers send out many thousands of identical emails in the hope that at least a few recipients will be panicked into sending the requested payment.
The email does not address you by name. Nor does it mention which particular site you supposedly visited, when the alleged incident took place, which contacts the software has supposedly collected, or any other identifying details. It does not even include a copy of the video.
If criminals intent on blackmail really did have all of this information and really did make the video, they would almost certainly include the video and at least some of the information as a means of proving that their threat was real.
To be sure, criminals can indeed distribute malware that is able to steal information from the infected computer. They may even be able to turn on your computer’s camera and record video without you realizing it.
However, in this case, the blackmail attempt is fake. There are many variants of the fake blackmail scam. If you receive one of these bogus messages, do not respond to it.
An example of the scam email:
you. You do not know me and you are probably thinking why you’re getting
this e-mail?actually, I installed a software on the X video clips (pornography) site
and you know what, you visited this website to have fun (you know what I
mean). While you were watching videos, your web browser began functioning
as a Remote control Desktop that has a keylogger which provided me
accessibility to your display and also cam. Right after that, my software
program collected every one of your contacts from your Messenger, social
networks, and e-mail .After that I made a video. 1st part displays the
video you were viewing (you’ve got a good taste omg), and second part shows
the view of your webcam, yeah it is u.You got two different choices. We are going to take a look at the
possibilities in details:First solution is to neglect this message. As a result, I will send your
very own video to each one of your contacts and just think concerning the
embarrassment you will definitely get. And as a consequence should you be
in a romance, precisely how it will affect?In the second place option will be to compensate me $1000. I will name it
as a donation. In this situation, I most certainly will right away remove
your videotape. You can continue your daily routine like this never took
place and you will never hear back again from me.
You’ll make the payment via Bitcoin (if you don’t know this, search for
“how to buy bitcoin” in Google search engine).
BTC Address: [Removed]
[case SENSITIVE so copy & paste it]
If you may be planning on going to the cops, well, this email can not be
traced back to me. I have covered my moves. I am also not trying to ask you
for a whole lot, I want to be compensated. You now have one day in order to
make the payment. I’ve a special pixel within this e mail, and at this
moment I know that you have read this email message. If I don’t receive the
BitCoins, I definitely will send your video to all of your contacts
including close relatives, coworkers, etc. Having said that, if I do get
paid, I will erase the recording right away. This is a non-negotiable
offer, therefore please don’t waste my time & yours by replying to this e
mail. If you need proof, reply Yup! & I definitely will send your video
recording to your 10 contacts.
30 comments
Going through my spam folder today (7/25/18) I saw I had received this very email 7/23/18. It does start out very troubling with “I am aware xxxxxxxx one of your pass word.”
And they show a password I used to use!
The rest is hilarious as… well, I’m just not worried about the threat. I put a Post-It note over my computer’s camera the day I bought it, for fear of hackers watching me at any time. A netbook I occasionally use would only show me clothed, typing whatever and 1/2 assed watching something on TV! 🤣
But how they have an old password???? That gives me some anxiety.
How do they know the password to the website?
They may have got the password via an old data breach. See:
https://inews.co.uk/news/technology/new-scam-password-bitcoin-porn/
Hi, thanks for your useful explanation. I got exactly the email you mention. Although I have nothing to be afraid of, because I am not a visitor of xxx websites, I have one question. Being currently our of office, my emal was set to send an autoreply, so the criminal email did get a response from me. I was wondering if this could be a problem.
Hi Andy, an auto-reply should not be a problem so long as you don’t respond further. One minor issue with this is that the auto response more or less verifies that your email address is active. This can sometimes lead to an increase in spam/scam emails because the spammers may tend to prioritise validated and active email addresses on their lists.
I will surely not respond further. 🙂
Thank you!
I got this email this morning. It was a bit alarming to see a VERY OLD password in the title, but seeing how I don’t even have a web cam, I wasn’t too worried. I did bring my phone in to the bathroom with me last week. Guess that’s the risk you take reading the news on the toilet 🙂
I just noticed one of these emails in my spam folder that was dated about a week ago. The subject line was simply [password] – [email address] and the body of the email was nearly identical to the example in the article, with a few minor differences. The password is not one that I use anymore…at least not for the porn site(s) I visit on occasion (Yup, I watch the porn. Sue me.), but the password was one that I did use for porn. Anyway, I suspected it was a hoax but the fact that it did include an old password had me a bit freaked out by it. A quick Google search lead me to this article, which I gotta admit, put me back at ease. Thanks for posting it.
I received a similar email on 07/26. Should it be reported to authorities or is there nothing really that they can do?
Not a lot to be done. They’ve used a data leak, so just ensure you don’t use that password anywhere else. Use a good password manager (Lastpass is a good password manager). It was all automated as they’d missed the leading 0 from my old password as they were clearly pulling it from a porrly formatted excel sheet.
I kept receiving this exact email! I got mad & responded a few times! I knew it couldn’t be true I don’t go on those kind of sites! But keep receiving junk like that which I get so annoyed! But after reading everyone’s response here to ignore this obnoxious email that keeps being sent I am gonna ignore! I get so tired of these solicitor emails even phone callers! The harrassment can be so overwhelming & im hearing most of these callers & these emails being from some in another country! I’m not sure but all I know is they become so exhausting! I’m not sure how to block these kind of garbage that is sent through emails or even through landline! The good news is you can on cell phones! But what if they keep using another number a different number each time? It can be a major pain in the butt!! All the technology’s can be good! But can also have that downside!!
I had this email, but a couple of points. Even if they did send images or video, your contacts would not open them anyway as they might get a Trojan. The email is totally non specific. If they really were able to screenshot or record your screen do you really think there is value in this? No. They would be after recording your bank details and definitely wouldn’t contact you. They would rob you. It’s fake so forget it and get on with your life.
I got a similar version of this email but instead of a password, it had the last numbers of my phone number. I immediately thought of a data breach. Given the amount of times one has to provide an email adress and phone number, when registering on a website or for services, any one of those could provided them with that info. Compared to the usual scam mails, this one is quite elaborate.
Hi – as HAMSI has mentioned, I received a very similar email only yesterday with the subject line containing the last four digits of an old work cell number, last used over 10 months ago.
One of my many faults is my complete naiavity of these things so please forgive the daft question, but should I be worried in any way that someone has accessed my camera and invaded my privacy?
Thanks in advance.
You have nothing to worry about. Someone is just trying to scam you but they are playing on your fears. Forget it
Yeah… I got one of these. First thing I got was a message on the singles site saying a dom female wanted to enroll me as a submissive. I flamed out an email to the email address she gave on the sight, and I am sure it was all bogus. Last few numbers of an old mobile phone were listed at top. Like they say… could have gotten that from many websites that ask for phone numbers for verification… like GOOGLE for one. It is a screened, private single site, so… any filming had to be done by members online… and then i was thinking… I WONDER IF I CAN GET A COUPLE GLOSSIES for my Christmas cards this year?
I got the email this morning, twice, with the ‘ransom’ demand increased in the second one. It did mention an old password that – I admit – wasn’t original, so I did get worried for a moment, but then I remembered that not only did I not visit the site (not that there’s anything wrong in it), but my webcam is covered.
I also receive an email yesterday but it had my name ,saying we have a video if i don’t pay they will send the video to my friend and contacts in 4 days, and that I shouldn’t seek help from the government and it shows the bitcoin wallet its a funny email but I’m scared.
also that I have been recorded since 2 months ago
I’ve got also today. Obviously nothing to worry about. I just try to hack this guy email account, would be funny. But they hiding quiet strongly… 🙁
I got one of these emails on the 25/09
They gave me 48hrs to pay or the copied information they copied from me phone would be sent to all of my contacts. I did report this to scam watch as these people need to be court and put into jail.
today, 4 of this type email each with my email address and major portion of 4 different passwords.
I received a similar email tonight — only they had “recorded” what porn sites I had visited, that they would send screen shots of those visits to my contacts, etc. And it was from my email address to my email address — like I sent it to myself. However….it’s an old email that i rarely use anymore, and they only provided part of the password. They asked for $827 in bitcoin (odd amount, right?) and gave me 48 hours to pay. Just to be safe, I need to completely close that email account since it was only secondary.
I just found two of these in my junk folder, and anxiety attack aside I had a major feeling they were bunk. I can’t even remember what site I used that password on, but it’s far from current… and I use a desktop PC that doesn’t even -have- a webcam. Glad I thought to do a quick google search to double check. 😛
still doing the rounds i got my third one last week ignored it as usual
Just received a mail like that, but I’ve never used the password they say in the message.
I received a similar message but it was an email that from my email. Should I worry? How did they do that?
Typo… It was an email that came from my own email…
I got one of these emails and the funny thing is that my monitor doesn’t have a web cam installed on it and I don’t have a web cam hooked up to my computer at all.
I got this as well, but it looks like it sent from my gmail account – the message appears in both my inbox and my sent folder, showing the same time; the subject line is my google username. When I got it, I logged out of gmail, logged in from a different computer, forced a logout of all other sessions of that gmail account, and changed the password, but 10 days later got the same message, again looking like it came from my account. The second time the bitcoin account number was different.
On the other hand, as already noted, if they actually had useful information – like bank passwords – they wouldn’t have warned me of anything, they would have just cleaned out my bank accounts. And they provided no evidence that they actually have anything embarrassing. So I’m just ignoring them, although I did install an anti-key logger as a result.