Email from random saying they know my password AND THEY DO. What next?!

[Reastie]

I’ve just had an email (unopened, just say the notification) saying they know my password and then wrote it and it is one of the old passwords I used to use. Presumably they have hacked into a site somewhere where I used it as a password. It’s no longer a password for any banking or money or email or work sites but may be log in for older shopping accounts etc I have set up before arranging a more fail safe individual password for each site with cloud chain.

The notification then said Andrew I have seen you through your webcam watch xxx porn...’ and then the notification stopped and I haven’t clicked on the email.

This isn’t the case because I’m the only one who uses my phone and iPad where I’m logged into email and I haven’t done this. Presumably they’re trying to scare someone that they have footage of them watching porn (which I have no fear of as it’s not happened). The password thing does scare me though. Should I be worried? Should I delete without reading? Is there anything I should do to secure myself more than I am?

This sounds like a classic phishing scam - delete and ignore! If anyone gets the same message and it contains a password they still use for anything then they should probably change it but other than that, meh.

I've had exactly the same email. I checked the pwned site to check breaches and pretty much just ignored the email. Was an old password.

MN was one of the sites hacked... I use a scrap email for it and haven't given any of the data they asked for. Just delete the email and check passwords.

I got pwned from linkedin and had some old logins that used the same password - lesson learned there. One hack was airbnb where despite alleged two level authentication, I was surprised to find that I was running an airbnb in a city I've never even visited. Got it deleted of course but never got an answer from them as to how the hackers got through. Got my whole account deleted as a precaution.

Without clicking on the link within the e-mail ... You can forward spam e-mails to:
[email protected] (or look up Action Fraud on Facebook). They won't reply but it gives them a picture of where the spam is coming from.

I found this address because I had an e-mail saying they had recorded me on my laptop watching porn and wanted bitcoins in exchange for not sending it to everybody in my address book. I just ignored and forwarded it to the above address and didn't hear anything more.

As for your p/w being out there, you might have to make a list of all your past accounts and make sure you change all the p/w's.

I know it's a horrible feeling when you've received one of these OP.

I had similar years ago when “TalkTalk” rang and quoted my password. I rang the genuine company who actually didn’t give a stuff so we left them as soon as we could.
I expect for every 1000 emails they send, if they get 1 or 2 replies they think it’s good.
Ignore and do not open!

Thieves are often idiotic

Not necessarily. They just want to ensure they catch the hard of thinking in their scams.

Much easier to scam someone in an ongoing basis if they aren’t bright enough to think things through properly.

I had one. Its a bit of a shock - and a scam.

One or two companies were hacked and names + passwords harvested.

These have been sold on to others who have used them in a malicious manner.

I think mine was stolen from linkedin? Not sure.

Many of us are sloppy about passwords.

When I got this I spent a couple of hours changing, and varying passwords.

Just act calmly and make changes, don’t respond to email or they’ll know its a live/used one.

It’s a scam, I wish I could remember where I’d read details of it. So I could send a link.

Don’t worry, the scammers got hold of one password and they are using it to basically blackmail.
Ignore them, delete the mail and forget about it.

Just had this today. I realised I have a few accounts with that so changed everything. I just find it so hard remembering them. Has anyone used a password locker, how does work?

My IT savvy brother has a good password system. He uses the same stream of random letters,digits and symbols then puts the site name at the end DP every site has a different password. Example (not the real password): dbcdtrcvAsY6&!lnetflix or dbcdtrcvAsY6&!lbarclays

I think clearscore will run a report to see which of your accounts have been hacked.I had an email from then yesterday and I ran the report.
Shein came up as one. (weird i am getting Shein adverts on MN while i type this)

I've had loads of these emails - really scary first time seeing your password being sent to you. It's just a scam.

Its a scam

Delete the email

Run an antivirus scan

Change your passwords

As advised above by Sparticus

Macs are less likely to be hacked, but it's not impossible. It's likely though that they managed to get an old e-mail/password from somewhere - an old computer you dumped, perhaps.

I've had these e-mails. They are usually attempts at blackmail "Send us £XXXXX or we will send the films of you we have been recording to everyone in your address book" etc

Well they can knock themselves out with that - anybody who wants to watch me binge watch Netflix and eat cheesy wotsits in my underwear deserves to suffer!

Don't respond - do do what Spartacus suggests.

I’ve had the same email, with a password. Ignore it, literally nothing will happen

Block them before you delete it. I have had his before. They sent 3 messages until I blocked them.

Does anyone remember when MN was hacked, and all our usernames and passwords were found online?

I got the same email yesterday, I've flagged it and put it into junk.
Same as yours with the you've been watching porn and well well unless you send us money. It's definitely a scam!

I had this too

Deleted the email and reset it

Look just own up. I you were watching porn, you were watching porn, now pay up..

Very common scam, ignore, they have nothing

I had this once , it upset me at the time , but we had a brand new computer and I knew no one had viewed any porn

Check the have I been pawned link that was circulated earlier. Out IT guy in work said we should do this regularly.

I had an email from some hacker and they told me my password which must be from my fitness pal when it got hacked a few years ago.

Some lists are sold years later, This is an old one. It is not true these days that Apple are not attacked. Use a Password Manager, change all your passwords and delete the emails. The porn one is a real oldie

The Apple doesn't need antivirus thing is bullshit. Windows is the most common OS so most malware is targeted at it, simply to hit the most users. It doesn't mean that there is no malware that affects Apple. You should still have an antivirus and a robust firewall.

I got this and it was my password for bbc good food that I don’t use anywhere else?