BBB has learned about a scam that involves personal emails and presents victims with threats of revealing they watched or downloaded porn. The scammer will contact people and claim they have hacked their computer and activated their webcam, allowing them to access all the porn sites the victim has visited. The scammer then threatens to send that information to family, friends, co-workers, and more if a payment is not made.
The West Vancouver Police recently issued a warning about this.
The following email was sent to a BBB employee:
“You do not know mè and you’re most likely thinking why you are getting this é-mail, right? Let me téll you, I pláced a malwarè on the adult video clips … While you wére watching vidèo clips, I madè â double-scréen video. 1st part displays the video you were wâtching, and next part shows the recording of your web câmera.”
The scammer then said:
“Right aftèr thàt, my softwàre gathéréd every onè of your contacts from your Messénger, FB, and email … In my opinion, $1900 is a reasonable pricè tag for our little sècrét. You’ll make the päyment by Bitcoin … You now hàve one day to make the päyment.”
“We just want people to be aware that this is out there,” says Evan Kelly, Senior Communications Advisor for BBB serving Mainland BC. “The scammer is simply after a quick reaction from their victim to click and follow links where payment is made. Even if you’ve never been to a porn site you can still get this phishing email.”
If you are threatened with this, do not click on any unknown links or download any attachments. Doing so could lead you to a fake site designed to trick you into giving up personal information or can download malware to your computer or mobile device.
Protect Yourself:
- Never send money
- Do a security check on your computer, or if you haven’t done so already, install security software.
- Change passwords immediately.
- Don’t respond to threats.
- Never send compromising images of yourself to anyone, no matter who they are or who they say they are.
- Do not open attachments from people you do not know.
- Turn off your electronic devices and web cameras when you are not using them.
