Cyber spam attack. Please help. Desperate

[CreakingKnees]

Help.
I opened my email and there was an email which basically said that I had viewed porn and was watched mastrubating to it.
I can honestly say that I have NOT viewed porn or mastrubated to anything. I can also say with confidence that no one else has used any of my devices.
The email contained my Hotmail password!!!
It goes on to say that if I don't pay a certain amount of bitcoin then footage of me doing so will be distributed around family and friends etc.
I tried to change my password but I made a hash of it and now Hotmail are saying that I can't attempt to change it for 30 days
I'm panicking because this person obviously knows my password.
I have emails that contain receipts with my name and address etc on them from such as ocado.
I'm desperate to change my password obviously and now I'm in a real panic.
Can anyone tell me what I can do now, and has anyone else had one of these emails?
Around 6 years ago I was hit by a virus which said I had to pay £100 to get my laptop unlocked, fortunately I managed to sort it ( the police were aware of this scam and gave steps on how to clear it on their website ) but it wrecked my laptop which had to be destroyed.
Help please.
Seriously, no porn has been accessed.
I don't know what to do.

[SouthWestmom]

Delete the email? It's not truer obviously. I've had loads and just ignored them. Was an old password I had.

[slipperywhensparticus]

It's a well known scam that's going around clean your laptop change your passwords done

Why wont hotmail let you change it for a month?

[ItsPeanutButterJelly]

You can contact Microsoft/hotmail directly to request they unlock your account. They may ask verification questions - so detail about emails you've sent or received recently - they they'll let you in. Eventually.

When you get access, for God's sake, close your hotmail and open a gmail account. Nothing but junk, spam and trouble with hotmail.

[CreakingKnees]

I made a mess of trying to change it. I think in my panic I kept putting the wrong password in. They sent me a code which I entered, then I had to put my current password in to renew it, but I think in my panic I kept putting the wrong letter or something, so then it said I had made too many attempts and so have to wait for 30 days
The password in the spam email is my current password, hence my panic.
I feel sick and close to crying.

[BertieBotts]

These are just scams. I've got them too and it doesn't even make sense because I don't watch porn and I don't have a webcam attached to my computer.

They will have your password from one of the many many password leaks over the years. There's a site you can go onto to see which username/email /password combos of yours have been compromised but I can't remember it now.

Anyway it's a good idea to change your passwords regularly.

[CreakingKnees]

If I delete my Hotmail account, would it be safe to forward any of my important emails from Hotmail to Gmail before deleting if this person has got apparent access to it?

[BertieBotts]

The person who sent this has sent hundreds of not thousands at once (using a computer program) in the hope they will get a nice payout. They are not accessing your emails looking for your name and address. I promise you.

[DrPeppersPhD]

If you've definitely not watched any porn then that's nothing to worry about, delete the email, contact microsoft/hotmail directly to change your password and go on with your day.

[Iamtheworst]

We went through a phase of getting these at work. They are purely phishing because obviously some people will have been wanking to disgusting porn.
I don’t know about sorting hotmail but I know we didn’t change our passwords after getting them (cause it was on our mail email that goes to 10 computers and would be a massive pain).

[Faithless12]

It’s a scam but you need to be changing your password more often. It’s likely an password leaked years ago. Also don’t close your account just because the above poster says so, gmail has just as many issues if not more.
You might want to check out haveibeenpwned.com/ and the NCSC released a list of the most used passwords. You might want to check that your new password isn’t on there.

[Teddybear45]

They would have gotten your email and password from a social media or merchant website hack. What you really need to do is not reuse the same password between sites.

[CreakingKnees]

That's reassuring @BertieBotts. Thank you.
I don't even know what a bitcoin looks like, much less where to get one from 😟

[BertieBotts]

I get far less spam on my Gmail account than my Hotmail account, which is riddled with it.

[Commencaal]

Please don't worry, I get these sextortion emails constantly quoting my work email and old passwords (as do many colleagues). LinkedIn had a data breach a few years ago and the email and password were my various login details.

I'd agree use gmail and definitely update your password regularly as that's good practice but just wait and reset your Hotmail password.

It's just phishing, don't panic.

[Faithless12]

@creakingknees please stop panicking like previous posters said they are sending thousands of these. I have also received it in October last year and recently found a place I still used the old password, nothing had been accessed.

There is no benefit to closing your hotmail account. Contact Microsoft and they should assist you. You will likely never hear from that person again.

[CreakingKnees]

Thank you all for your responses. I feel better already.
Will dry my eyes and try to sort this password mess out.

[Kittykat93]

It's a scam!!! Even if you had been watching porn it makes no difference. That same email would have been sent to thousands of people. I got one a couple of months ago, just deleted and moved on.

[SaskiaRembrandt]

This has been happening for ages www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2019/jan/17/phishing-email-blackmail-sextortion-webcam

Just contact Microsoft, explain what has happened and ask for their help to reset your password.

[Faithless12]

@BertieBotts I get far more actual spam in my gmail account. My hotmail account is spam which I signed up to and am too lazy to unsubscribe from.

[DrPeppersPhD]

For reference, OP, bitcoin is a digital currency generally used in these sorts of scams because it's hard to track exactly where it's coming from and going to.

[Delilah2019]

Just delete it and move on with your day.

[msmith501]

Please stop panicking. I work in IT and I can assure you that this is a scam that hits millions of email accounts on an almost daily basis. Most of the time we don't see the scam emails as they are caught as junk by hotmail etc. - in other words, large organisations know they are rubbish and for the most part don't even waste your time letting you know as these is no need to worry. There is no single individual sitting waiting to attack your email account or trying to impersonate you. What actually happened (and still does) is that email addresses and passwords get leaked (normally older accounts when security was more lax but some people keep their old passwords for ever) and a "bot" (computer program) sends out emails randomly to everyone on the list with the sole intention of scaring you into spending money on bitcoin (digital currency) and making someone rich. If you ignore them, they don't get rich and sometimes the "bot" will re-email and Hotmail will flag it as crap etc. That's really all there is to it. The bit about you watching porn is there to embarrass you into paying. The bit about having taken control of your webcam to watch you having a wank (that's what these messages usually say) whilst watching porn is equally crap. Put yourselves in the shoes of a scammer - what would you write to scare people? And as for the scam a few months ago of people locking your files in exchange for money to unlock them - never ever pay. You will lose money and your files will remain locked. Invest in a decent anti-virus / security program, keep it up to date and all the malware / pc hostage issues will disappear.

[FamilyOfAliens]

I’ve had one of these emails sent to my work email account.

I work in a primary school.

After initially shitting myself, I deleted it and blocked the sender. I haven’t had any more since.

[Toodeloo]

I had the EXACT same problem - whilst on gmail. I’ve simply been on a list that got pawned 🤷🏼‍♀️ Change your passwords, run a scan on the laptop and you will be fine.

[Redcherries]

I’ve had several, the last one said I had been beating my dolphin ??? I’ve ignored them all. Me and my friend exchange the funnier ones.

Do contact Microsoft to access the account and get the password changed as pp have advised.