Email Scam -

[Huskie87]

Although some of you may have already had this experience, I received my first email ransom threat today and thought this article was worth sharing for others.

What was so concerning about the email was that the first line starts off by stating "I know your password is ____".  This is a very effective way to get your attention!  How could this person know that?  They must know everything about me...  It goes on to basically demand money or everyone you know is getting videos of you doing inappropriate things.  Just send some money and it'll all go away.

I'm younger, and am pretty knowledgeable about technology.  I work in finance, and have seen elderly clients fall victim to scams.  I wanted to share the article below, because the template message that is included here is very similar to the one I received.  Apparently it's very cheap to purchase people's passwords online after hacking occurs, and that is the easy way to project legitimacy.  The reality is that I don't even use a password to get into my email, I use two-factor authentication.  Never-the-less, it's enough to get your blood pumping and I'd hate to see anyone send a dollar to people that do this.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/17/email-sextortion-scams-on-the-rise-says-fbi.html

[Smokystache]

Hadn't heard about these despite being online every day. Thanks for the heads-up.

[Khaetra]

I've gotten this a few times.  I laugh, because I keep my camera covered up and if they did somehow manage to see me they would be sorely disappointed.

Sadly there are people who fall for scams and my advice is never click on any link and if an email says there's a problem (say, an issue with your bank/Amazon/Netflix/etc.) go directly to the website by typing it in and checking your account that way.

[Huskie87]

Here is another good link.  My email message was nearly word for word in the first template. 

https://safecomputing.umich.edu/phishing-alerts/subjects-vary-%E2%80%94-likely-will-be-old-password-2020-04-23-000000

[lemanfan]

If you haven't seen it already, on this site you can check if your e-mail is among those found in a few hundred known leaks:

https://haveibeenpwned.com/

Might give you incentives to change a password or two if needed.

[JetBlast]

Had this just a couple weeks ago, but the email was sent to my father instead of me. That was an awkward phone call for him, until I said it was all a scam.

I think it actually makes sense for the scammers to send it to parents with 20s-30s aged children. They tend to have more money so it’s easier for them to just pay the ransom to ‘help’ their child while avoiding an uncomfortable conversation.

[MilesTeg]

Although some of you may have already had this experience, I received my first email ransom threat today and thought this article was worth sharing for others.

What was so concerning about the email was that the first line starts off by stating "I know your password is ____".  This is a very effective way to get your attention!  How could this person know that?  They must know everything about me...  It goes on to basically demand money or everyone you know is getting videos of you doing inappropriate things.  Just send some money and it'll all go away.

I'm younger, and am pretty knowledgeable about technology.  I work in finance, and have seen elderly clients fall victim to scams.  I wanted to share the article below, because the template message that is included here is very similar to the one I received.  Apparently it's very cheap to purchase people's passwords online after hacking occurs, and that is the easy way to project legitimacy.  The reality is that I don't even use a password to get into my email, I use two-factor authentication.  Never-the-less, it's enough to get your blood pumping and I'd hate to see anyone send a dollar to people that do this.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/17/email-sextortion-scams-on-the-rise-says-fbi.html

Yep, this scam has been going around a lot. It's why you never, ever, ever reuse a password between sites. Especially on low security places like this message board. Low security sites get cracked all the time, and then malicious actors try those credentials on more interesting targets like banks.

I set up a honeypot on a hulu accounts once with old credentials of mine that I know have been compromised. It was accessed within a few days. There are many, many folks out there running scripts that slurp up leaked credentials and try them on hundreds of sites automatically.

[marty998]

I got that one last week. They demanded $1900 worth of bitcoin otherwise they will post a video on Facebook of me looking at adult sites. Something about pixels embedded in my email so they would know I looked at the email etc etc

Figured it was my Linkedin login that was hacked a few years ago, fortunately I had only used that password on a couple of other unrelated sites.

Seems even scammers are lazy ass in trying to make a buck. Takes 4 years to move from hack to extortion lol

[FrugalKube]

If you haven't seen it already, on this site you can check if your e-mail is among those found in a few hundred known leaks:

https://haveibeenpwned.com/

Might give you incentives to change a password or two if needed.

Thanks for sharing this!