Email sent from my email address to me threatening to blackmail me

[delilabell]

I've had an email sent to me today, from my email address saying they've accesed my camera etc and filmed me masturbating to adult sites (I've never been on adult sites ) and that unless I send them 500bitcoins they'll send it to eeveryone.
They won't send a made up video of me will they?

This is the email

[quote delilabell]@ENoeuf sadly I'm being truthful I have anxiety and worry about things like this![/quote]
Just change your password and unless you need to.use your camera, put a sticker over it

@ENoeuf

I’m assuming you are genuinely worried rather than being ironic? This is a huge scam and you don’t need to reply or do anything. Nothing bad will happen.

I was wondering that too, everyone knows about this scam dont they?

I have loads of these, some with minor variations. Presumably they've been filming my Mumsnet habit, which I must say is a bit excessive.

@delilabell omg I have literally just had the same email!!! I’ve deleted it but forwarded it to the cyber crime people. Utter scum

@delilabell

I've had an email sent to me today, from my email address saying they've accesed my camera etc and filmed me masturbating to adult sites (I've never been on adult sites ) and that unless I send them 500bitcoins they'll send it to eeveryone. They won't send a made up video of me will they?

This is the email

I had the same just before Xmas and just ignored it!

@sandgrown

I had one of these at work . It’s a scam . It gave the security guys a laugh !

That happened at my work too and ended up with a very amusing teams chat stream of people owning up to searching the most bizarre things they could think of

I got one of these (saying they had similar footage of me) and they had one of my passwords. It was actually one of my passwords, but one I had used in the past (ages ago, but a few things still used it, like Spotify and other sites I never go on).

I went through all my passwords (I use Lastpass password manager) and changed any last sites using that password then ignored it. I received another email about a month later saying time was running out, I ignored that too, and haven't had anything since.

Honestly ignore it, they're just trying their luck.

I got that today with my actual physical address and from my name. It's far more scary than the usual "your PayPal has been suspended" bollocks.

Without wanting to be flippant, but if you've never visited any adult sites, then that in itself should be red flag enough to let you know it's a scam

I had one too. I think they assume you're a bloke. They had an old password of mine too, which I changed. I put black tape over my camera (not that I've done what they said!). It did upset me but thinking about it, they had nothing on me, just as they have nothing on you.

I've had that one too. They did know one of my old passwords which was mildly disturbing, but there have been so many security leaks, that's not surprising.

At the moment I am getting loads of emails from Zoosk from people with impossibly large penises inviting me to meet them. I had to google what Zoosk was. Goodness knows why I am getting emails from them.

@Purplewithred

I have loads of these, some with minor variations. Presumably they've been filming my Mumsnet habit, which I must say is a bit excessive.

I had this on an email account I rarely use. By the time I saw it, it was about a year old. There were no follow up emails but there were a few other scan ones during the same time period. My email address must have been on a list from a hack but nothing happened at all.

I was wondering that too, everyone knows about this scam dont they?

Presumably not everyone, otherwise there would be no point in their sending them out. Some people will suffer from extreme anxiety, some will have LDs, general low intelligence and/or lack thinking skills, some will be vulnerable, others will be elderly and not really au fait with online scams and others will be young, like that poor lad mentioned upthread and react like any frightened child to a scary situation.

As for 'if you haven't been doing it, that's a clear sign that it's fake', some people (like OP) will worry that they could easily fake incriminating 'evidence', even though they're completely innocent. Of course, many will not be innocent of what they're accused of.

If anything, this is a lot less obvious than the Nigerian ones where the head of the UN wants to transfer $86,000,000 to your personal bank account - but they still keep sending them out, so they must manage to claim some victims, otherwise why ever would they bother?

These people are absolutely despicable - they're clearly very smart, creative, persuasive and have good IT skills, so why on earth they couldn't just use all that to do something honest and positive in their lives/careers, instead of scamming vulnerable people who don't have those same privileges in life, I really don't know.

I've also had this and they sent a couple of follow up emails over the 24 hours, so don't panic if that happens to you too. Here is a link to show that this is a frequent phishing email scam thenextweb.com/news/so-you-received-the-bitcoin-masturbation-vid-email-heres-what-to-do/amp

Is this one still doing the rounds? I used to get these at work all the time, even though 1stly I don't access porn, 2ndly I wouldn't do it at work if I did and 3rdly my work computer has no camera or microphone. These scams are sent to millions in the knowledge that at least some of those people will have watched porn and believe it to be true that there is a video of them out there and pay the money.

I had something similar at work and it is distressing, but as everyone has said a horrible scam, delete and try to forget

@nancy75

To make you feel better op I get these fairly regularly to my work email. Not only have I not been wanking at work (in my open plan office) my computer doesn’t even have a camera to catch me if I did! Just delete it.

This! I got some at work too, but it was automatically quarantined. Only found them as a genuine email from a client had not been delivered so checked the quarantine. Did make me laugh as you say, not only do I not do that at work, but our cameras are disabled on the server 😂😂

Also as they were quarantined and I hadn't seen them when they were originally delivered, I was about 2-3 months past their deadline anyway!

Op just delete them and change your password just to be safe.

I was telephoned from our landline number once, I assume they made a mistake when they were dialling their scam call.. idiots

@Pedallleur

Love these. I email them back to say I've got plenty of them and some are totally appalling and would they like them for a price.

Never reply to these things. If you done they no you exist and you'll get even more.

Oh yeah I have had these recently. Just delete- they stop eventually.

Delete, put a sticker over your camera if it will make you feel safer then change your password then forget. Happened to me once, but never heard back again.

I had quite a nasty one the other week saying ‘I know what you did and I’ll be telling everyone’ or something similar. I can imagine they’re hugely distressing for anyone who isn’t familiar with scams.

I’m not sure what they’re blackmailing me about though. I haven’t done anything exciting. I did accidentally steal a bunch of bananas from Asda a couple of years ago. Maybe it’s that?

I’ve had this email too. Scam. Ignore and delete.