Blackmail email

LifeIsAPotato · 2020-04-11T00:38:19+00:00

I've just checked my emails and I've received an email stating one of my passwords and demanding a 1900$ bitcoin payment because I accessed an "adult" site. If I don't pay the sender will send a webcam to all my contacts of the time. Is this even possible? What should I do?! I don't have that kind of money anyway..

Whatsnewpussyhat · 11/04/2020 01:40

Delete and ignore. It's a scam. Do not click on any links.

Whatsnewpussyhat · 11/04/2020 01:40

And change your passwords.
This is the second one of these posts I've read today

Sparklesocks · 11/04/2020 01:43

It’s a scam. Your info would’ve been hacked from a third party site along with thousands of others and sold on to scammers. They then send those emails to hundreds/thousands of addresses hoping to hook a few people. Change your passwords, Block, delete and move on.

user1473878824 · 11/04/2020 01:44

Is this a joke? OP it’s a scam. Just delete it?!

QueenofSwearing · 11/04/2020 01:44

Absolutely nothing. I get these all the time and nothing bad has ever happened

PumpkinP · 11/04/2020 01:48

I had one that kept emailing me, they just wouldn’t give up, very persistent, claimed to have videos of me pleasuring myself on webcam😂 it’s fair enough that the op asked they can be pretty worrying as they even made it appear that they had hacked my emails as they sent an email “from” my email address but I later found out you can change your email address so it seems like you are sending it from that address.

Original poster

LifeIsAPotato · 11/04/2020 01:50

Ahh, thanks everyone, I was going to have a sleepless night over it, already deactivated my FB account!! Will change all my passwords and get some sleep! Thank you!

OP posts:

ByAppointmentTo · 11/04/2020 01:52

This is the third thread about this scam today!

Awwlookatmybabyspider · 11/04/2020 01:55

Funnily enough someone else started a thread about the same thing happening to them. Please please believe us when we tell you it’s a scam. Do not give them any of your details. These people are maggots and I’m insulting maggots by saying that.

Hannah021 · 11/04/2020 01:57

It means some website that you have used was broken into and they found ur password.

You must change that password from all accounts, esp accounts you pay with. Your email, etc.
that password should be changed everywhere, and dont use the same the same password for ur email, and even better use a password for banks, another for commercial use, and a third for social use.

Use a password safe if u tend to forget. They are free.

Katie2017 · 11/04/2020 02:06

I got loads of those a few months ago-not had any for about 2 months though. They were out of luck as I haven't visited any adult sites and I don't have a webcam I can imagine people with a webcam being worried. I just ignored and eventually they gave up they can't do anything it's just bull. It was slightly worrying to see they've got old passwords of mine though.

givemeanamepls · 11/04/2020 02:11

You don't make your passwords easy to guess, do you? Don't. No "password". No "password123456". It takes like a second to figure those out.

No dictionary words. Those take under a minute to go through an entire list. :/

Just in case no one knows this.

DramaAlpaca · 11/04/2020 02:15

Total scam. Delete and ignore. I've worked out which third party site they'd got my email from because of the password they said they had, it was an online newspaper subscription. Needless to say I've now changed the password.

Original poster

LifeIsAPotato · 11/04/2020 02:27

It's a password I've used for a long time, now used for just my online food deliveries I think. Everything else is different. It really worried me, even though I don't even own a pc with a webcam!!

OP posts:

Original poster

LifeIsAPotato · 11/04/2020 02:28

And I still can't get to sleep!

OP posts:

MashedSpud · 11/04/2020 02:32

Don’t worry about it.

They probably sent it to thousands of people.

Katie2017 · 11/04/2020 02:49

Have to admit it got me a bit at first as well-usually savvy on scams but this one was a bit different with the blackmail password element-made it look like an email just to me. I knew it was impossible for them to have any video but was worried they'd hacked my computer to get my password or something. Luckily it was a really old password I never use anymore.

I remember at the time looking the email up online and lots of people had got them so yeh deffo a scam. If you are ever worried about an email put a description in google like I did (same with dodgy phone calls) if it's a scam they'll be loads of people saying they've had them and not to respond.

Nancydrawn · 11/04/2020 02:49

I was just going to suggest that you put a postit over your camera so even if it were true, all they'd get was a yellow square.

That said, this is a common and really shitty trick that plays on people's fears of embarrassment. It does make your heart race, even if you know if you haven't done anything wrong. (Btw, if you had been on an adult site and not covered your webcam, you still wouldn't have done anything wrong--it would just be humiliating.) They're awful, awful people.

PumpkinP · 11/04/2020 02:59

I don’t own a web cam either, I only use my phone so don’t even have a computer but them having your password and seemingly emailing me from my own email address (they definitely weren’t emailing from my address as I had a completely different unrelated password) it wasn’t even that that worried me it was how persistent they were, it went on for months constant emails. Luckily it has stopped now so they must have given up with me.

Mamajules43 · 11/04/2020 03:03

I had the same email!!

givemeanamepls · 11/04/2020 03:07

If anyone has a IoT device (baby cam, security cam, this sort of thing) make sure when you first get said device you change the default username and password. This is a very easy way for hackers to hack you if you leave the default credentials.

Katie2017 · 11/04/2020 03:57

That said, this is a common and really shitty trick that plays on people's fears of embarrassment. It does make your heart race, even if you know if you haven't done anything wrong. (Btw, if you had been on an adult site and not covered your webcam, you still wouldn't have done anything wrong--it would just be humiliating.) They're awful, awful people.

Yeh they be sending the same email to thousands of people whose passwords they've managed to get hold of on the off chance they get a few who have been on an adult site and may have been ahem enjoying themselves and be worried these creeps somehow do have a webcam of it. Might not be doing anything wrong but can't think of anything more mortifying than someone having that type of footage and sending it to all your contacts! If I remember correctly the email was quite long and laid it on pretty thick about how you'd feel if they sent this alleged footage to all your friends and family. But pay them x amount of bitcoins and rest assured you could trust them to get rid of the evidence (lol) and go on your merry way. Most of us know they can't possibly have a vid of anything but can imagine some people worried they have been somehow hacked and filmed whilst on one of those sites.

msmith501 · 11/04/2020 04:00

It's a common occurrence and nothing to be concerned about. Incidentally most of these emails get caught by our email provider before you get to see them but in reality it's happening on a daily basis across millions of accounts in the hope that a small percentage of people respond and pay.

Check his thread OP from yesterday Porn Extortion Email www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/3876978-porn-extortion-email

Rebelwithallthecause · 11/04/2020 04:58

You would only worry about this if you’ve been looking at dodgy sites surely

differentnameforthis · 11/04/2020 05:10

Ignore. Scam. Delete and block.

I had the same a while ago, the pc i was using didn't have a built in webcam, and the one I used was in my drawer, so no way could they have proof of anything!

You will get more (scare tactics) but block them all!!