You’ve just got an email that made your jaw drop and you are panicking. The subject line said, “Better listen to me”. In curiosity, you started reading the email and you are now convinced that you have been hacked by a scammer.
The email says that when you went to a porn site and clicked on a link, allowing them to access your webcam and all the websites that you visited. They have a recording of you engaged in some intimate acts while viewing pornographic videos. They are now threatening to send this recording to everyone in your contact list unless you send them a few hundred dollars in bitcoins within 72 hours. There is a link in the email on how to send bitcoins. This blackmailer even provided one of the passwords to an account that definitely was your password last year! The scammer also claims to have nude photographs and that he will send them all to your family, friends, and coworkers unless you comply.
The above case is a common way blackmailers extort victims through email scams, and is called Sextortion.
Many victims send money hoping that the problem will go away, but find that the blackmailer will continue to make demands for more money through bitcoin transfer, moneygrams, or Western Union. Sextortion is often an unpunished crime because victims are too embarrassed to seek help.
So what should you do if you receive a sextortion email?
First, it is unlikely that the scammer or scammers actually have access to any of your personal photos or videos. These are most often phishing attempts and you should not reply. If you have been in contact with the blackmailers and/or you are pretty sure they do have sensitive material, DO NOT pay the ransom to these criminals, but contact Cyber Guardian Security immediately at (800) 695-5957.
Our team of cybersecurity experts will investigate and stop the perpetrators from holding you hostage to their scam. Our unique service uses several state-of-the-art technologies to identify and neutralize the threat. You can be sure of confidentiality and the highest discretion from our Guardians, who are always on YOUR SIDE.
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