There’s a new threatening email making the rounds and it’s scaring a lot of people.
Linda Sojer received one from someone who actually listed one of her old passwords in the email.
The sender claimed they installed malware on a porn site and had video of her watching it.
The message included a threat to send the video to all of her contacts–unless she sent $3,200 in bitcoin payments.
She’d never been on an adult site and knew it was a scam.
“I knew there was something up, but then I thought, ‘How many people bought into it because of the password?'” Sojer said. “Because you panic. You think, ‘Oh my heavens.’ It creates fear–that’s the reaction.
“I could see them looking at that first line and opening and responding.”
Calgary police are aware of the threatening email.
Sgt. Andy MacLeod says it is spam and is being mass-mailed to thousands of people–but there is no legitimate threat.
“An email such as this with a generic spam like that, typically they have do not have access to anything on your personal computer,” MacLeod said. “If they really did know who you are, you would have a lot more of your personal banking accounts, credit information, actually tampered with. They want you to feel vulnerable and they want you to feel like you need to pay up.”
IT experts suspect the passwords were hacked in a website data breach and in most emails, the passwords are old.
If you get one, don’t reply. Delete it, change your passwords and give your computer a security scan.
Watch below from February 2018: A telephone scam sweeping Calgary and Alberta has prompted a warning to ignore missed overseas calls. Tony Tighe reports.
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