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?

Just chiming in to say I have been getting many different versions of these for a couple of years now.

I was worried once because they had my email address and a very common password of mine that I used before you needed letters and numbers together. But I live in an LA that was hacked a during covid and still causes problems.

I haven’t watched porn, so def not me. I was more worried about people using my details. I think one of the emails must have also had my address or birth date. But that was the first one a couple of years ago.

Just ignore

theyve sent thousands at random hoping that someone is embarrassed or worried and will pay up.

Just delete and ignore. I had several of these. One said they were on their way to my house to cut off my hands

Yes, I have had this email - never looked at anything remotely sexual online - it's standard wording they use.

For a long while, I was receiving "YOU OWE MONEY" type emails from what was, apparently, my account.

It's called 'spoofing'.

Report to the email account provider and send any emails from yourself to Spam

"Take care and have a good day" that's brilliant 😂😂😂😂

And HMRC rang me to say they have a warrant out for my arrest apparently. Oddly HMRC had American accents.

I get them emails all the time and show them to my son so he knows not to ever take them seriously.

I saw the other day the most convincing deep fake video and do you know what, I was delighted because we are all free now again!

Anything, anywhere about any one of us, we can just laugh and say it’s a deep fake now!!

I said the same thing to my children, ignore everything and if anyone tries to blackmail you, say it’s a deep fake.

As many have said, a scam, I’ve had the same email in the past, deleted it, did nothing and nothing happened, the danger is if you reply

my mum had "HMRC" on at her she hasn't paid tax in 10 years. I'm glad I was in her house she was ready to start pressing buttons on her phone.

I've had a this one a few times. I'll admit the first time I got it it took me a minute to realise it was a scam. They had an old password as "proof" and the amount of bitcoin they asked for was eerily similar to the amount of money I had in my Paypal account.

I then remembered that a) I do not watch porn and b) I do not have a webcam.

Change all passwords to something much more complex using a password manager.

https://www.lastpass.com/pricing?cp=LP2023-11-30P-P&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=20759280684&utm_term=password%20manager&utm_content=156941345433&sfdcid=7018c000001FDbw&gclid=CjwKCAiAt5euBhB9EiwAdkXWO_gbdHlzSgcTO6iWIm8UE84AaU69nkuqmLCPB65k2jLNiZ_cRzYhsRoCnnUQAvD_BwE

my mum had "HMRC" on at her she hasn't paid tax in 10 years

No wonder they were calling, then!

Block, don't reply and forward to [email protected]

i've had the same spam message - just ignored

its always from your email to your email, report it and block it. I am surprised you have not seen this before, I don't know how many times I've received this, but I'm guessing 30 or 40. No, they don't have any video of me doing anything- cos I have not been on those sites or done any of those things, so its all a bluff.

Ignore

How do you block emails?

tick the box next to them or highlight the in whatever way works for your email provider. Go to the top bar, click on "report" and choose an option from the drop down menu.

Or you can right click, go to advanced options, go to "create rule" and choose "always delete".

I’ve had some of these emails, they’re spam. I don’t watch porn, if anyone had access to my camera the worst they would see is me lying down with a double chin watching skincare videos or something

He has a guilty conscience, poor lad! I've gotten these threats before, threatening to show webcam feed of me masturbating to porn (which is maybe the threat your DS received) or to expose the affair I'm having. None of these apply to me!

I get them all the time I just ignore them

Yeah, I’ve had these too. If they want to send a video to my gran of me rummaging myself to Mr Darcy diving into a pond let them 😂

Tell him not to worry. Its all spam 😊

I've had this.. we have videos of you watching porn, pay bitcoin or it's being sent to your contacts. It's a scam, block, report and ignore.

Have a look at the email on your laptop. Hover the mouse over the email address that it's come from and you should find it's a completely junk address.

Oh ffs.

I had that message. Apparently I had 'good taste' in porn and they'd bugged my computer and they'd email me masturbating to all my contacts! It's just a scam- mentioned it to a colleague and she'd had the same one, word for word.