I know where you live: Creepy scam emails with personal details
Phishing emails are bad enough. But have you ever opened your inbox to find a threatening message claiming that hackers have access to your webcam – complete with some personal information or even a photo of your home? These frightening emails are part of a growing trend of blackmail email phishing scams and extortion online.
But is the threat real – and what should you do about it? ?
This autumn, reports have been surging of email scams with a frightening twist: personalized threats. People are receiving blackmail emails that contain eerily correct personal information, like their name and address, their cellphone number, a password, or even a photo of their home.?
These scams follow a common pattern: The emails usually claim that the sender has hacked into the recipient’s webcam and has recorded them visiting adult websites, often specifying that this was made possible by malware such as Pegasus spyware. They go on to demand a ransom, paid using cryptocurrency, or else they will send the compromising images to the recipient's colleagues, friends, and family.
New twist on extortion emails
Blackmail scams are unfortunately nothing new, and emails threatening to share compromising videos of the recipient have been circulating for at least a decade. In fact, such scams are common enough to have been given the name “sextortion emails.” A more recent development? The ability of the scammers to use AI to quickly harvest all sorts of information from the internet and send out frighteningly tailored threats.?
Keep reading to learn how to recognize and handle these blackmail email scams. See the full article on our blog!