This morning I woke up early, in a very good mood. Everything was fine until I checked my email. Among my emails I found an email presenting my email address and the actual password of the email address. That caught my attention.
Now, this was an old email address I no longer really use, but still… I read through the email, and the text was as follows.
The text of the sextortion email
“It appears that, (*******), is your password. May very well not know me and you are probably wondering why you’re getting this e mail, right?
in fact, I setup a spyware over the adult vids (porno) web site and guess what happens, you visited this web site to have fun (you know very well what What i’m saying is). During the time you were watching videos, your internet browser started off functioning like a RDP (Remote Desktop) which provided me accessibility to your screen and web camera. and then, my software program obtained all of your current contacts out of your Messenger, Microsoft outlook, Facebook, along with emails.
What did I actually do?
I made a double-screen video clip. Very first part shows the recording you are watching (you’ve got a good taste haha . . .), and Second part shows the recording of your webcam.
what exactly should you do?
Well, in my opinion, $1000 is a fair price for your little secret. You will make the payment by Bitcoin (if you don’t know this, search “how to purchase bitcoin” in Google).
Bitcoin Address: 1K2nT3YRTMtN25hBRzYrTjJTNXuNiQsiKn
(It is case sensitive, so copy and paste it)
Important:
You have one day to make the payment. (I’ve a unique pixel within this e mail, and at this moment I know that you have read through this email message). If I do not get the BitCoins, I will certainly send out your video recording to all of your contacts including relatives, co-workers, and so forth. Having said that, if I get the payment, I’ll destroy the video immidiately. If you need evidence, reply with “Yes!” and I will certainly send your video recording to your 6 contacts. It is a non-negotiable offer, that being said don’t waste my personal time and yours by responding to this message.”
What was my reaction to the email?
At first, it felt bad to see that my actual password was used in the email, and it was correct. But, I was never really worried, because the accusations of the email had nothing to do with reality. I do not watch porn (never), meaning that the accusations have nothing to do with reality. In other words, this had to be some sort of spam.
I also know that the password quoted is one I used everywhere on all sorts of sites years ago. In other words, they probably grabbed it from some sort of hacked database or somewhere else, and now they use it to blackmail all sorts of people. Considering the number of people who watch porn online, this is for sure going to feel threatening to a lot of people.
So, it felt bad that one of my email addresses and its password has been in the hands of bad people. I immediately went ahead and changed the password of the account.
What’s there to learn from this sextortion email?
If you receive a similar email, don’t pay. It is just a scam and humbug! If you do a quick Google search you will quickly find out that lots of people have received similar emails recently. But, there is something to learn and that is to be careful with your passwords online.
- Do NOT use the same password everywhere online!
- Be careful when registering for airdrops, forums, and other services. The recent so-called MonaCoin airdrop campaign is an example of a scam airdrop in which the people behind it can easily abuse the information shared.
- With a password manager, you can easily use different complicated passwords everywhere.
- Don’t do things online that you would be ashamed of if people around you would find out about.
Have you received a similar email? Don’t worry!
A few minutes later, I noticed that I received the same email to another address. I have changed the password of that account a year ago, meaning that the password quoted in the email was no longer correct. This supports the fact that they have simply gotten hold of lots of email addresses and passwords from some old database, and now they use those to blackmail people.
Again, do not worry. Instead, share this story and let other people know about it so that they won’t be tricked themselves!
