Fake Extortion Scams
Yesterday I saw a new twist on Fake Extortion emails claiming to have hacked your pc whilst you were visiting a porn site and threatening to send a video of you to all your contacts unless you send bitcoin. This recent example contained a reference to an old password related to the email address of the recipient which gave it a significant air of validity. Now if you have a bad habit of reusing the same password for years across many sites then it is more likely that it will end up exposed in a website breach eventually and thus be used against you in this way.
- Get a password management tool to help you use good password practices,
- Get a webcam cover and
- Have decent paid security on your computer.
First don't respond! These aren't individually targetted it's just a scripted dump from a database designed to elicit a panic response. Even if the worst happens (and its highly unlikely) then trust me you can weather much worse things in life than embarrassment, remember paying out just rewards scum. I have a bunch these webcam covers so I will send out one to the first 5 people who message me in October.