How to Respond to a Sextortion Email
You'd be surprised by the kind of crap that appears in my inbox.
A sextortion email is a threat made by a scammer who claims to have filmed you through your webcam while you were consuming pornographic content and claims to release that footage if you don’t pay the ransom in bitcoin.
Yes, that’s a real thing.
Don’t believe me?
Here’s one I received a few months ago. 🙂
I know. The email makes for great entertainment.
But if combined with Email spoofing (which is when someone sends you an email that looks like it was sent from your Email account) some people fall for it.
In fact, a friend who received a message like this (seemingly) from his own Email messaged me as he was concerned that this could be real. What a wanker! 😂
What’s more, looking up the Bitcoin wallet address in that email suggests that a handful of people fell for the scam as 1.59747032 BTC were sent to that address.
Wait! There’s more!
Here’s another one I received a while ago. I kept it just for you. 😉
I know. Fun right?
I receive these email a lot because I work in the Bitcoin industry. So, unless you also work in the cryptoasset markets, you are much less likely to receive mails like this.
However, given the sheer amount of mass data breaches. Who knows? You might get “lucky” too. 😀
So, here’s the deal.
The threat is not real.
No one filmed you through your webcam. If they would have, they would send you proof as part of their extortion attempt.
The idea behind sextortion emails is to trick people into thinking they have been caught in an awkward moment so that they pay up. Don’t pay up!
That’s it for this week. Stay safe out there!
Peace, love & anarchy,
Alex Lielacher