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?

Vroomfondleswaistcoat · Today 18:33

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.

Oh, I've had them too and just ignore them. If you hover the mouse over the email address, a little box comes up with something entirely different

😂

It will have nothing to do with whether he's visited a porn site - I'll bet a pound to a penny that if you go to www.haveibeenpwned.com and enter the email address he received the threatening email on - that his email has simply been obtained from a website that he's used the email on to create an account - it could be any website - music, film reviews, sports clothing, etc. Just ignore it - it's nothing.

I would've worried about the exact same thing at 19 so ignore comments saying he should just deal with it, it can be very frightening. It is a classic technique used all of the time. Tell your son not to worry.

Because she’s still his mother?

Stupid comment.

I get one of these a week. I just think how boring it would be for everyone to get bombarded with pictures of my dog and my new nails. Crack on.

I get this email every week or so, when you read it you'll notice the spelling and grammar mistakes despite them claiming to never make errors. If he goes to a website called have I been pwned and enters his email I bet it'll come up it's been involved in a data leak.

Just delete the email and any future ones.

Edit to add I didn't see the previous replies by the time I typed this (a WhatsApp chat got in the way) and see its all been mentioned above xx

Don't engage. Block and delete the sender. Very common scam

Ignore it, its not real. I get loads of them. One said it installed a bug in my phone and had videos of me being intimate 🙄 from my email to my email. Fake.

I had an email saying the same yesterday. Had one a couple of years ago to another email address but same content. I haven't been watching porn while masturbating so I'm 100% sure they've got nothing on me.

I've been getting these messages in my spam folder for years. It's a scam. Don't engage and delete.

They send the same email to eleventy billion people and a handful pay so it ends up being profitable.

It's spam just mark it as spam and ignore it.

I think it's lovely (not to mention healthy) that he's talking to his mum about this.

I had one of these the other day. It's hilarious 😂 I'd rather have a cup of tea and a biscuit than watch porn. I almost replied saying the only photos/videos I have on my phone are of cats and crafting, but they're welcome to release them to my friends and family if they really feel the need to 😂

I got one of these to my work email a few years ago.
I am a teacher so had definitely not been looking at anything untoward.

Apparently the video of me was magnificent. 😆

It gave the tech guys a good laugh at least.

I've had dozens of these. Every time, I tell DP 'oh no they've caught me on the porn again' 😂.

norton isn't great tbh, and as his email i assume is an internet account gmail etc? then it won't do much re protection.

he should contact his email provider, change his email and get 2 factor authentication to log in.

duo app is good fort this.

he should also update any other account that might have similar password to his email also.

I've had this email, as have loads of people I work with. Just tell him to delete it.

It's just a scam. Delete and ignore.

Get him to change his password just in case but most likely spam that gets sent to everyone.

I had an email saying they had naked photos of my wife that they were going to leak unless I paid them money.

I don’t have a wife and I’m not a lesbian.

But someone out of the thousands of people they send it to may think it’s real and fall for it.

It's fake. I've had these. Sometimes they even write an actual password in there (a real one I've used). Just delete it, definitely don't click on anything in it.

I'd forgotten that element of the scam a few years ago. That's what freaked out my friend (who was one of the first to get that email)

I’ve had this loads of times… e-mails sent from “my” e-mail address stating they have incriminating images etc (I don’t even have a webcam) and to pay them money..
That’s what scams are! If you pay then you’ve fallen for it.

Old scam that appears to be having a resurgence . Does it start with "Hello Pervert?" I got it years ago and saw a similar screenshot on Instagram today.