Got email from Hacker blackmailing me for money

• 

  WreckTangle on 13/04/2020 - 08:12

  +3

  Did he send a screenshot of you to verify his claim?

  • 

    ChristopherSpilberg on 13/04/2020 - 11:24

    +6

    No. But i am excited to watch my own deepfake 😉

    • 

      973728 on 14/04/2020 - 11:11

      +2

      Hijacking early comment to respond to this.

      All that has happened here is that they have the association between your email account and a password you once used from one of the many hacks over the last x years. Look up your email address on www.haveibeenpwnd.com and check. Then do the same with the password from this email.

      I have to say it is a good scam email in that it gets straight to your nervous reaction because the password is correct (assuming you watch porn of course).

      Anyhow, as long as you don’t use that password anymore, safe to say you are okay.

      On another note, use LastPass or 1Pass

• 

  sugarfree on 13/04/2020 - 08:12

  +10

  Don’t reply or send any money.

• 

  Caped Baldy on 13/04/2020 - 08:12

  +20

  Delete the email. Move on with your life.
  There are websites that you can enter your email to see if it was comprised.

  • 

    pegaxs on 13/04/2020 - 12:24

    +41

    I went one better and uploaded my own videos to P0rnhub and sent the hackers a cease and desist letter claiming copyright infringement…

    • 

      Tonyh87 on 14/04/2020 - 08:18

      I think you win comment of the day

  • 

    bunkymag on 14/04/2020 - 09:03

    Better yet send me your email and password and I will check for you

• 

  Hithere on 13/04/2020 - 08:12

  +18

  This scam has been around for ages in 1 form or another.

  Delete it and forget about it.

  https://haveibeenpwned.com

  • 

    Chris Topher on 13/04/2020 - 18:51

    As in: google —> 𝐈 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐱𝐱𝐱 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 (𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐲) 𝐰𝐞𝐛-𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐧 (𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧).

• 

  Ocker on 13/04/2020 - 08:13

  +4

  Its a scam and there was an article about this type of scam in the press a couple of weeks ago.
  I also got such a message but to prove it was a scam, where the sender claimed to have a video clip of me, I do not have a camera installed on my desktop.

  • 

    Zachary on 14/04/2020 - 08:37

    I do not have a camera installed on my desktop.

    Could be you have one of those monitor/tv that have a secret camera and mic even if you don't have a dedicated external camera that you know you've installed yourself…. and they probably somehow hacked into it…

• 

  ssquid on 13/04/2020 - 08:13

  +6

  Old scam. They get your details from hacked forums/sites that you've registered on. Nothing to worry about because you always use unique passwords for every service, right?

  • 

    Flowerbomb on 13/04/2020 - 11:03

    +1

    Yup this sounds like a very legitimate explanation. Move on OP, and I certainly believe if you pay him ONCE, he will come back for seconds!

• 

  qwerty on 13/04/2020 - 08:13

  +4

  This is a stock standard extortion scam email - its because one of your passwords got leaked online
  check out your email on https://haveibeenpwned.com/
  and change all your passwords that were similar

• 

  MS Paint on 13/04/2020 - 08:24

  +2

  Read this

• 

  MatthewTeng on 13/04/2020 - 08:35

  +1

  Site that have been hacked and didn't properly hash(secure) password information (Adobe!) often have the users email and passwords released online in big lists.

  These people grab the list, put send an email to your address with your password for that site and say you've been hacked.

  You see your password, get scared and pay up. This is a good reason to use a different password on every site and use a password manager like KeePass.

  They may also use a unique bitcoin address so that if you pay, they know who you are and keep emailing you.

  I've had some really humorous ones, one about kiddy stuff with followup emails mentioning my respectable position, my expensive car that was seen when I went to the shops. I guess there's someone out there who will match their accusations, but all WAY off for me.

  Ignore it, nothing to worry about at all.

  If you use that password anywhere, you should change it.

  • 

    ssquid on 13/04/2020 - 13:29

    +1

    Even if they're hashed they're still breakable. Unlikely if you use a decent password, but finding any decent sized list online (e.g. plenty at https://hashes.org/hashlists.php) and running a dictionary attack will yield at least a ~10% success rate (so I've heard).

    • 

      MatthewTeng on 15/04/2020 - 07:55

      True, yet I've had a couple of passwords too obscure for even the best of lists to have, not in any rainbow tables I've seen and too long and random to brute force. (20 or so totally random numbers and letters)

      There's different levels of security I've seen around: (You sound like you likely know all this, but for everyone to read)
      • Plain text - someone save us!
      • Plain hashed - rainbow tables work great against these (hashes already calculated for password lists) - super easy, barely an inconvenience
      • Common salted hashed passwords - Every password on the site has a same common string added to it before hashing. - A little less easy than plain hashed - If you have the salt you just added it to each line in the password list an check the resultant hash against all user passwords at once. Annoying, but not terrible.
      • Randomly salted hashed passwords - Each password has it's own salt. You make a random salt 'f@#$!F#$bnnv', add your password "myluckystar", combine and hash md5("f@#$!F#$bnnvmyluckystar"), then append the salt to the beginning of the password before storage. "f@#$!F#$bnnv![md5ofmyluckystar]". In this way you have to try every password in the password list against every user one at a time, since each password is salted differently. This can be VERY time consuming to bulk hack passwords.

      While true that an individual targeted password for a particular account may be broken without too much difficulty if the password is insecure, the more secure the method and more time and resources are required to break bulk quantities.

      The scale of the password leaks indicates to me that the security used is most likely one of the earlier less secure methods.

      (My terminology is self made, there may be more professional terminology out there)

• 

  randomusername2017 on 13/04/2020 - 08:36

  +4

  The only people that would be worried about these scams are the ones that know there could be such a video out there…

• 

  AdosHouse on 13/04/2020 - 09:33

  +8

  I've had this email before. I was kinda tempted to send the hacker money, to help pay for the therapy of allegedly seeing naked video of me having a wank. Then I remembered I don't have a webcam, so not an issue.

  • 

    Heaps for Cheaps on 13/04/2020 - 10:04

    +6

    The OP said it was a videotape, so the hacker would have been outside your window with a older handycam, no webcam.

    • 

      AdosHouse on 13/04/2020 - 11:18

      +1

      So less hacker and more stalker?

• 

  Heaps for Cheaps on 13/04/2020 - 10:00

  +5

  +1 massive scam. These emails have been going around for years, stealing old passwords from past breaches that have been made public and hooking people into thinking the rest of the email is legit.

  Have you been part of a username/password breach in the past?
  https://haveibeenpwned.com/

• 

  mreddie on 13/04/2020 - 10:06

  +2

  Old scam just ignore it

• 

  crashloaded on 13/04/2020 - 10:13

  +2

  I would ask why anyone would care about seeing my tiny d1k.

• 

  typistinahurry on 13/04/2020 - 10:17

  +5

  My 18yo son got one of these not so long ago. He engaged in some very enjoyable (from his perspective anyway) back and forth banter with the fkwit in question, led him on for a while, got him to show him the video (clearly not my son at all and exceptionally poor copy and paste job) and after the fwit felt he was losing the battle, he started negotiating downwards in the amount he wanted. During the process, my son went and changed his passwords as a matter of caution. Once it became clear to him that my son knew what was going on, that he actually had no leverage at all and my son wasn't concerned about the threats to share the video that the guy had made, he threw a few poorly worded profanities at him and went away.

• 

  chumlee on 13/04/2020 - 10:17

  +1

  I can share my account details with you if you want porn?

  • 

    ChristopherSpilberg on 13/04/2020 - 11:33

    You got me. Yes please

    • 

      anastasiastarz on 15/04/2020 - 22:03

      I just goggled it for you and the main site is offered free premium membership atm to get people to stay at home. ;)

• 

  pegaxs on 13/04/2020 - 10:22

  +1

  Ask Pam how she got it all fixed up…

• 

  Mikinoz on 13/04/2020 - 10:25

  +1

  I got the same email old password, ignored

• 

  whooah1979 on 13/04/2020 - 10:41

  bc1q***sdfxaurclud663mxp24ruk954nnneryphn08vv

  The address is wrong.

  • 

    kerfuffle on 13/04/2020 - 10:45

    Did you remove the *** as instructed?

    • 

      whooah1979 on 13/04/2020 - 11:09

      Thanks.

  • 

    Heaps for Cheaps on 13/04/2020 - 10:47

    You didn't take the *** out

    • 

      whooah1979 on 13/04/2020 - 11:10

      Thanks.

      It doesn’t look like anyone is playing.
      https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/bc1qsdfxaurclud663mxp…

      • 

        kiitos on 14/04/2020 - 13:05

        They can be single use wallets so the owner can identify which targets paid up.

• 

  Melb69 on 13/04/2020 - 10:42

  +2

  These guys are sitting in a room calling and emailing the vulnerable. Do not pander to them by engaging in conversation with them as it gives them opportunities to prey on getting further info and possibly access to your private data which they can use to hack into other accounts. Best to avoid those sites. Bet the internet traffic is high on those sites at recent times. Stay safe.

  Delete and move on. Update virus/malware scanners and scam. Change passwords just in case.

• 

  newak on 13/04/2020 - 10:45

  +2

  Just ignore this email and and move on. This type of e-mail has been doing the rounds for years now.

• 

  kahn on 13/04/2020 - 11:24

  +2

  How many ozbargainers does it take to screw in a light bulb say this is a scam?

  • 

    ssquid on 13/04/2020 - 13:17

    +1

    Well it took that other thread about four pages before they realized OP was the one doing the scamming, not the guy who bought the used xbox.

• 

  Stalker on 13/04/2020 - 11:51

  +2

  Wasn't this an episode of Black Mirror?

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shut_Up_and_Dance_(Black_Mirror)

• 

  cureforanitch on 13/04/2020 - 11:56

  +1

  Theres a list of old passwords and usernames from a whole heap of websites that have been hacked over the years. This is a scatter gun approach of sending this email to all accounts from these breached websites, quoting this "old" password

  Of the throusands sent, there are probably a few scared people who pay

  My advice, change your passwords if the one theyve quoted is still used anywhere

• 

  Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 13/04/2020 - 12:01

  It's an old scam as others have said.

  Even if it was real, don't pay. Do what the President of Indonesia once did - gloat and ask them to share the video as it'll make you look like a chad.
  https://medium.com/war-is-boring/the-cia-and-kgb-tried-to-bl…

• 

  iDroid on 13/04/2020 - 12:04

  +1

  I get 10 of these a week.

  Total scam, they just have access to a compromised password list from some website or similar.

• 

  ryurazu on 13/04/2020 - 13:04

  hahahaha yes please, start writing to them like a mad man, and then they will ignore you.

  Tell them if they don't stop that you will find there email database and start SPAMMING and i mean Deny of service level spamming as much DICK pics as they want.

  • 

    MatthewTeng on 15/04/2020 - 08:00

    Most of the time the email addresses are fake and you couldn't respond to the scammer if you want. They just send from any random address they want. (You can't really trust what is written in the FROM address unless you know and understand the hidden headers)

• 

  pantsparty on 13/04/2020 - 14:25

  Classic scam.

  https://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2019/jan/17/p…

• 

  [Deactivated] on 13/04/2020 - 21:57

  Everyone at my work got this one. 200+ people gettin’ it on at work double clicking the mouse.

  Needless to say everyone deleted it as we’re an IT focused profession.

  We also got/get the “Svetlana from Russia that came across me on LinkedIn and I am sexy boy” ones

• 

  [Deactivated] on 14/04/2020 - 08:06

  Surely as a “Spillberg” you make better films?

• 

  smalltime0 on 14/04/2020 - 09:19

  +1

  lol, I got sent basically the same email.
  They're using old hacks that are on pastebin and are phishing for suckers to give them money.
  go to this website:
  https://haveibeenpwned.com/
  And enter your email address, it will probably reveal the website that was breached.

• 

  Big Trev on 14/04/2020 - 09:36

  This is now pretty old (at least in internet years!). Really kicked off a couple of years ago, here's an article from Brian Krebs (Cybersecurity journalist) about it: https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/07/sextortion-scam-uses-rec…

• 

  Dejaar on 14/04/2020 - 09:57

  +1

  I got the exact same email. Mine was from a Rolk Tanaka.
  I googled and found the exact email on a scam alert website.
  Just ignore it.
  However I did sign the senders email up to as many newsletters that could find…just to annoy the loser.

• 

  ajswong on 14/04/2020 - 10:56

  Keyloggers usually do just that - log your keystrokes. Unless it's some other kind of malware and this guy's a dumbass, it shouldn't have access to your camera or screen.

  But, what I said shouldn't matter, because everyone above is right - ignore it. Once, everyone in my high school got a very similar email, and it had our passwords at the time. Long story short, no-one got any private videos of "extra-curricular activities" released, and no-one paid these losers a cent.

  Have a good one mate.

• 

  ozbjunkie on 14/04/2020 - 19:58

  Offer to send a HD video of you masturbating. Fixed the problem for others I've heard.

• 

  Tomato on 14/04/2020 - 20:55

  I also received similar scam just last week! Copied here for you guys to read between the lines ;)
  Overview:

  IdinstalledEatmalwarepondthexadultxvidsE(sexxsites)Osite,candIthere'sHmore,pyouEvisitedsthisGsiteatoOhaveufunC(youmknowxwhatXIHmean).TOncejyounwereathereyonAtherwebsite,wmyomalwarextookHcontrolVofQyouribrowser.sItDstartedDoperatingRasEaHkeyloggerhandxremotesdesktopNprotocoltwhichKgavezmejaccessstoFyourAwebcam.iImmediatelySafterkthat,YmyZsoftwareqcollectedVyourecompleteScontactsffromHyourbMessenger,IFB,Dandoemail.QjIMcreatedbaSdouble-screenjvideo.OFirstOpartLshowshtheqvideocyounwereuwatchingG(yourhaveiaIgoodZtasteVlolW.F.L.),pandPthetsecondAparthdisplaysEtheGrecordingqofByourpwebcam.O

  PreciselyDwhatrshouldLyouUdo?

  Well,EINbelieve,D$1900PisGaffairCpricetfortourElittleisecret.EYounwillHmakebtheppaymentwthroughkBitcoinp(ifPyoumdon'tPknowcthis,osearchh"howItoWbuyzbitcoin"cinBGoogle).Y

  BTCQAddress:v
  bc1qzlec5mx5e9jhnjf5dlmqjstqqpyw2pxjyh3hfq
  (ItOisfcaseAsensitive,hsoecopycandApasteoit)

  Note:

  YoujhaveaoneedayWtoOmakeGtheApayment.y(I'vefaGspecificTpixelpwithinJthisImessage,gandpnowUIoknowbthatyyouChaveDreadfthroughVthisgemail).GIfCIZdoenotdreceiveytheUpayment,aIbwillPsendHyourUvideoCrecordingdtoYallbofByourgcontacts,mincludingvyourarelatives,KandScolleagues.tHowever,tifSIVdojgettpaid,GtheXvideoGwillLbetdestroyedximmediately.wIfIyouQneedQevidence,Jreplyxwithh"Yes!"uandTIgdefinitelyVwillgsendEyouravideodrecordingftoHyourf10scontacts.gThistisPaknon-negotiableMoffer.kPleaseSdon'tswastekmyEpersonalctimeiandxyoursgbyfreplyingstorthisFemail.

  Gaven

• 

  Brendoo on 14/04/2020 - 23:31

  This scam has been around for years, simple to get the information he actually SHOWED you (the old password). Which is essentially worthless. Anyone can do this from the legit and very useful site https://haveibeenpwned.com.

  The dude (well probably a syndicate) would have a better chance asking for $20. Might get thousands giving them $20. No one is going to give him $1900. And to ask for Bitcoin, how stupid, 99% of people wont even know it's even asking for BitCoin, nor what it means or how to send it.

  Btw, good idea for everyone to register on https://haveibeenpwned.com, you will be contacted if one of your accounts is compromised. And a good idea to first manually check there and change any passwords for accounts it highlights, and ensure you never have the same password on more than one account.

  • 

    MatthewTeng on 15/04/2020 - 08:19

    +2

    I've gone through a few of the bitcoin addresses that have been sent to me in scam emails. It's amazing how many people do actually pay. While not all are large, there are some who pay quite a bit of money.

    https://www.bitcoinabuse.com/reports/15ZHnf1MPn6ybb8yUeAoCQ1…
    https://www.bitcoinabuse.com/reports/1Bt4psBJmjfVTcW6eYiJZ6H…
    https://www.bitcoinabuse.com/reports/1CwTNBNekpV7kDQ7pjF1ghs…
    https://www.bitcoinabuse.com/reports/12iPSuHtkZ9ap9Yh8pidCsD…
    https://www.bitcoinabuse.com/reports/1E69X8qQMEUuMaMPPtupgj4…
    https://www.bitcoinabuse.com/reports/1PcFYw7PQKUnj6RxqVwZ4TF…
    https://www.bitcoinabuse.com/reports/15ZHnf1MPn6ybb8yUeAoCQ1…
    https://www.bitcoinabuse.com/reports/13cyEdT7kyH2f4j9xchvDGh…

    • 

      Big Trev on 16/04/2020 - 08:25

      Well, the same with any of these scams - they're not doing it for fun. The crooks will gravitate to things that pay.

• 

  Trying2SaveABuck on 26/04/2020 - 17:17

  I'd email back saying go for your life champ

  If you really hacked me computer you would know I'm broke and I'm rather shameless