Scam artists have been using a new tactic by claiming to blackmail or extort people with porn.
Imagine opening an email telling you "I know your password...I know your secret...and I have proof."
The anonymous sender then goes on to claim that he or she has hacked into your computer and caught you watching "adult or sexually graphic videos" and that he's not only "accessed your display screen" but your computer's webcam.
It goes on to say the sender's been "recording what you had been watching" and using "your webcam" to record you watching and "doing inappropriate things."
A frequent reaction from people who receive this email is, according to retired FBI agent Scott Augenbaum, "Oh my God!"
Augenbaum has already heard from folks who've received these emails that go on to describe how the scammer's "software program gathered all of your contacts from Messenger, Facebook and your mailbox."
The scammer gives you "48 hours" to send "$3200" in bitcoin or he threatens to "send your video to all of your contacts."
"Do I want my wife to know? Do I want my kids to know? Do I want the church elders to know?"
Augenbaum said is the common thought process of those who get an email like this. He went on to say the scammers are really playing upon people's fear.
The email can be very convincing. After all, you get it and wonder how did they get not only my email, but my password too? Most often this is a password you've used for an online account. It's likely come from one of the many data breaches we've heard about in the last year where millions of email addresses, user names and passwords have been stolen.
"And what ends up happening is the bad guys are able to buy these lists of emails and passwords," Augenbaum explained.
He said everything the scammer describes doing in the email, from tapping into your computer and your webcam to accessing your contacts, is technically all possible for someone to do.
"But, what are the odds they're really doing this?" we asked him.
"In this situation, I would say the chances are very very low," he replied.
Augenbaum said it's a lot easier for a scammer to just make you think they've hacked into your computer and hope you'll pay up. After all, he suggested, if they send this to hundreds of thousands or even millions of people as is often the case with these scams, even if they get just 1 percent of the recipients to send them money, they're doing very well.
If you do get one of these emails, don't panic and don't fall for it. Just delete it. If the email mentions a password you're currently using, change it immediately. And if you're really worried about being caught on camera when you're not using your webcam, just cover it with a piece of tape.
If you ever get an email and are not sure whether it's a scam, take a couple of sentences from the email and Google them. Odds are you'll see that lots of other people are getting the same thing.
