Scam????

How horrible for your son to receive such a nasty message
forward it to the police and action fraud and change the email password

Its a scam. A well known one, they haven't got anything on him.

He needs to change his password though as they clearly have access to his email account and run a scan. I'd probably use a chameleon, Malwarebytes used to have a good one but I haven't used it for many years.

If there is any strange behaviour on his devices, I'd be a bit more thorough and scan with a tool that launches before the operating system just to sniff out any nasties but doubt they've bothered tbh. They count on people falling for the scam, rootkits and the like are too much like hard work.

Reassure him OP. Most emails that are from people he doesn’t know are highly likely to be scams. It’s great he’s spoken to you about it, it’s great practice for online safety. 10/10 for him.

There’s no need to do anything other than delete it and change his password.

They can actually clone email addresses to make it look genuine, eg. people have received emails from their boss at work asking them to send money or buy vouchers and things and it’s been a scam.

Spoofing email addresses isn't that difficult for a criminal. Receiving an email from yourself doesn't mean you sent it but that the criminals have made the address they sent it from look like yours.

My colleague got one of these today! Yes, it’s a total scam and they’re doing the rounds at the moment - they have been for years. Here’s some info from the Microsoft community.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook_com/forum/all/what-is-this-cobalt-strike-beacon-i-got-this-email/5637def1-3cae-4de8-bbe9-683bc2fe2239

Total scam. I've had that type of email and I'm a 30something woman who's never accessed an adult website or opened a webcam.
I would be concerned about his reaction though, if he has bever sent vidoes of himself anywhere it should be easy to reassure him.... if he has it might be time for a better Internet safety talk.
Oh, and I just deleted it along with all the other scam emails. Nothing happened.

I’ve had a scam email supposedly sent from my email address however it hasn’t been as no one has logged into my account (I can see there have been attempts, but outlook shows that all have been unsuccessful, as I have a strong password and two step verification). Also outlook recognised it as junk, and put it into my junk folder.

However I usually block junk/ scam emails but it won’t let me because the system thinks it is my email address! Which is confusing, however I am certain that they haven’t accessed my account. There must be a system where they can make it look like emails are coming from a particular email address.

It is easy to make an email look like it has come from someone else.

This is a scam, and there is no need to block, just ignore it. They are fishing.

Either he has subscribed to somewhere that has sold his email address, or one of his friends has been hacked, or a company that he has legitimately given his email address to has been hacked, or he has clicked a link and inadvertently given his email address. Very difficult to avoid this sort of thing these days.

This. There's not really any point reporting it to Action Fraud as there hasn't been a fraud. Ditto law enforcement. I get these all the time and just forward them to the phishing email address. I know it's easy to worry but hundreds of thousands of these emails are sent out - they either persuade people to pay the ransom, steal personal details or infect your computer with malware (or all three).

I didn't mean that I thought your son HAD been looking at porn, by the way, OP. He may not have done. But it's worth bearing in mind that he may have accidentally seen something and be freaking out that the scam is real.

I've had this email and my computer doesn't even have a camera. Delete and ignore.

OP, well done on having the type of relationship with your son that means he is comfortable and secure enough with you to come to you for help with this kind of thing. Scammers rely on teenage boys panicking because of feeling ashamed if they HAVE been looking at porn. And many teenage boys do, it's freely out there. No parent should be naiive enough to think that their teenager has never looked at anything of a sexual nature on the internet, even out of curiosity.

Reassure him that it's a scam. And praise him for coming to you.

Forward it to: report@phishing.gov.uk

I got the exact same one. Obviously a scam so I deleted it but please reassure him I've never looked at porn.

These scammers are disgusting.

If you search the text, you can find the same blurb online - here is an example on reddit from a year ago - https://www.reddit.com/r/AskIreland/comments/15lur9e/email_scam_what_is_an_apt_hacking_group/

A scam, good lesson to ignore most of what you get sent unless you expect it!

Poor kid. If your wifi is secured so he can't access dodgy porn have you tried asking him if he has been watching porn? Then when he says no, ask him how he thinks the scammer could have video if him doing that ???

it would reassure some of the Sen boys I know & others would think the scammer had used ai. It's a difficult one but you know your son & how he'd redact.

i had one a while ago & it is initially a bit scary, even when you're a NT 55 year old who doesn't look up dodgy porn!!

This scam has been doing the rounds for years! He has nothing to worry about. Block, delete, ignore.

Absolutely a scam. I had similar years ago, it’s been doing the rounds for ages. If you google ‘cobalt strike beacon email’ you’ll find loads of people complaining about it. It’s unlikely to have come from his own email address, more likely his email was spoofed. Definitely change the password and use two factor authentication to keep his account safe.

100% a scam. Millions of people receive stuff like this every day. Just ignore and delete. You might get similar ones in the future. Ignore and delete. These scammers just bank on the 1 in every 100 people who will think it’s real and send them payment to make it worth doing.

YY to Action Fraud (and not the police who will redirect you to AF)

It’s a common scam and further advice can be found here:-

https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/guidance/sextortion-scams-how-to-protect-yourself

Have you hoovered over the sent address, chances are it will be a very different address just made to look like his.

Honestly, there has been a recent case where a teenager killed herself, rather than be "exposed" by the scammer.

Please show this to the police. And reassure your son that nothing bad will happen to him at all.

Scam and a very bullying one at that.

Report it to: Action Fraud, so it's on record.