DS being blackmailed by an email saying videos/pics on his phone will be sent to his contacts unless he pays into a bitcoin account

[ArentYouInBedYet]

Any advice please?

This scam was rife a few years ago. Half my friends got it. The first few were really freaked out, but once it got known, it was just a case of reporting it via their email system.

Is it really that shocking for a parent to be helping their 19yo with something worrying?

I had that email a few times this week.

Does it start of with.... Hello Pervert?

It is also using my email address so I can't block either. But I just deleted it, as it's purely a scam.

He even puts about being like God, knows everything....

Just delete but the email address is going to be receiving a lot of other spam unfortunately.

It's a scam. I've had lots of these, all worded slightly differently, but mentioning the same thing you have mentioned, all from different accounts.
Just ignore it. Don't pay any money, it's a lie.

I've had this email about a billion times.

If anyone really wanted to see a video of me watching Jason Mamoa edits, eating crisps and with my 18 chins on display and my nostril hair out and proud then more power to them 🤣

It's a really common scam, literally nothing to worry about.

https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/beware-of-blackmail-and-sextortion-emails-threatening-to-expose-your-personal-information-a8WkG9v2PQ11

Oh I had this a year or so ago! An email telling me that they had videos of me watching porn and doing all sorts and they were going to send these videos to everyone in my address book. They also 'showed me' an old password as 'proof' that they'd hacked my accounts.

1. I've never watched any porn at all so highly unlikely that they could have recorded me doing anything more risque than making a strong cup of tea and cuddling the dog and
2. I'm in my 60's. Anyone confronted by a video of me doing - well, almost anything at all, and certainly anything naked, is going to be put off watching videos for life.

It's a scam. Tell him not to worry.

Ignore. I get these regularly and am confident it is utter bollocks.

That’s what parents do, support and help their children.

Just ignore, they can make it look like its came from your own email and say they've hacked it. They haven't. Google it. Its a well known scam.

It's called sextortion and is a common scam.

Have a look at the atomic shrimp YouTube page as it has a lot of good anti scam info.

They send the same email out to everyone, it's very easy to spoof an email "sent from" address.

Ignore it.

We got those at work. I used to tease the caretaker about it because he was the only one in at night, but the computers didn't have cameras on them, so I knew they couldn't have taken videos of anyone.

My son had one purporting to be from the fbi when he was about 17. He panicked (asd and had probably viewed porn) and we sought advice. It was a scam. Ignored, blocked and moved on.

And I would always help my boys. Whatever age they are!

Report to the police and block and delete

It's a scam. Ignore it.

Is it about him watching porn? I get these all the time. Seriously nasty though. The ‘sextortion’ scam uses real passwords (mine was so unique that I could tell right away which site they had bought user details from/hacked) and some even look like they’ve even sent from your own email account. Tell him to change any logins where he uses that password.

It’s not real. They don’t have videos, they are phishing.

Not necessarily.

I agree that these scams do pray on those who genuinely do have iffy things on their phones, bt they also rely on the fact that e.g. knowing the name and the email address of someone causes them to panic because they think that the scammer must know them/that they’re being watched.

My DP had one at work years ago which was similar, he ignored it, but work took it very seriously wrt why someone would contact him, even though it’s a well known scam.

I block and delete all manner of this crap
Although if you reply to the “hi mum I’ve lost my phone” text with something along the lines of “you’ll have to be more specific as to which child you are given I have more than one,” they block you 😂.

It's definitely a scam, I've had the same message and just deleted, nothing happened

it's a scam clearly a scam don't do anything except delete it or if you have the function to report.

I’ve had same email, or similar, it’s bollocks

I got a phone call once telling me I had done my taxes wrong and that if I didn’t press 1 and deal with it then there were already “marshalls” surrounding my building to arrest me.

Unfortunately at the time I had two non sleeping children and a very stressful job so I was quite excited about the idea of being arrested. It sounded restful. I was particularly looking forward to the bit where they take me back to the cells and lock me in for several hours to “sweat it out”. I was going to have a lovely nap.

Sadly I managed to get all the way to the sandwich shop and back that lunchtime without the dashing Marshalls stepping in and carting me off for my lovely break so I had to get on with writing my board paper.

It was very disappointing indeed.

It’s a scam. I get them regularly. I am assuming they aren’t going to blackmail me over accidental screenshots of my home screen.

Yes I’ve had one of these. Thing is, I’ve never watched porn in my life, but even if I had I would ignore and delete - it’s a classic sextortation one, which has been doing the rounds for years.

Your son has nothing to worry about.