A couple of days ago my husband received an email from someone who claimed to have an explicit video of him.
The emailer addressed my husband by name, included a password he has used in the past, and meandered on to the real point of the exercise, which was to demand money. He had 24 hours to pay, then after that the video would be sent to all my husband's contacts.
The blackmailer explained that the money should be sent by Bitcoin, and there followed a description of how one could obtain them.
Tick-tock. Time is ticking.
This is part of a new scam. If you receive such an email do not respond to it. Do not panic.
The police advise that you should change all online passwords and ensure that your computer security anti-malware and anti-virus software is up to date.
Do not pay a ransom.
Contact the police, or report it anonymously to Crimestoppers.
(Of course we all know this already, but it is always worth a quick reminder!)
How horrid. I am so relieved you didn't panic (and pay up!) Gosh, you read about this in the papers but never expect it to happen to you or anyone you know. Thank you for the salutary warning. I hope the perpetrator is caught and taken to task over this.
ReplyDeleteLuckily we keep our computer security up to date and are very aware of fraud anyway. Even so, it does make you feel quite vulnerable and ruffled for a while. It seems to have been rolled out to quite a number of people during the last few days, I hope no one paid up!
Deleteoh my gosh, that is awful. I hope they are found via IP. :(
ReplyDeleteI hope so, too. Somehow I doubt it!
Deletewho are these crazy persons? is there any way for police to track them?
ReplyDeleteGoodness knows, Marcia. I do know that something similar has been sent out to lots of other people, too.
DeleteNasty.
ReplyDeleteYet another scam to watch out for, although a video of me would be pretty boring!
Me, too! I confess that my first response was to laugh at the implication. Then I got cross.
DeleteWow!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteAnd I thought, our "Crap-O-La" was bad. E-mail and on land line phone.
Thank you for the Real Life Reminder.
It is all out there, the trick is not to let it, or the fear of it, intrude too much into our lives.
DeleteSo sad, how pervasive is greed.
ReplyDeleteIt comes from all directions, sadly.
DeleteIf people only put as much effort into doing good, as they do into trying to con people out of their money, it would be a far better world. Good advice and I hope they are able to track down and prosecute these scumbags.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Susan. I doubt they will, but you never know. Life chugs on.
DeleteThat must have been a nasty shock even if you know it's a scam. Thanks for warning us
ReplyDeleteThanks, Linda. It pays to be vigilant, especially on line.
DeleteWhen I read your post out to Ted, he laughed and said he would say publish... his street cred could do with little light lift!
ReplyDeleteLX
Love it!
DeleteThat is disgusting, the lengths some go to obtain money is beyond me.
ReplyDeleteThey should try doing an honest day's work - shock, horror!
Deletea shock even if you know its a scam
ReplyDeleteIt certainly was, gz.
DeleteHow absolutely awful. I never realised people could be so dreadful until the internet came along.
ReplyDeleteEven here, in Blogworld, we get glimpses of rather unpleasant behaviour. I imagine that this one came about when some company or other was hacked, there seems to have been quite a lot of that recently, big name companies, too.
DeleteOh goodness Elaine scamming seems to be everywhere. We have had several phone calls asking for the bearded one by his full name claiming they are from BT and saying they want to discuss our broadband. I always play dumb and say they need to speak to D and he's out and no I don't anything about how he pays the bill. The last time they said they needed his bank details in order to refund him some money because the broadband had not been working. Living where we do it quite often plays up so there story is plausible and there are those that would be easily sucked in. Its terrible that you have to be so on your guard with everything and so very worrying for you and your husband.
ReplyDeleteMitzi
Hello Mitzi, Snap! As you say, we do have to be on our guard all the time, it must be very frightening for much older people who are not quite so able to deal with things. We, too, have lots of internet problems and calls from alleged 'BT' people. There is a lot of it about!
DeleteThank you for liking my present Header photo!
ReplyDeleteIt's of little girls, in the Floral Fete, held in my old Victorian city. The first of which, was held in 1894.
I just adore this photo. :-)))