I have been warning you about sextortion scams for nine years.  Generally sextortion scams begin with an email in which you are told that your computer and web cam have been hacked and that the scammers have video of you watching porn online.  In the email, the scammer threatens to send the videos to people on his contact list unless you pay a ransom in Bitcoin or some other cryptocurrency.

In a more recent version of this scam, people around the country are receiving such sextortion emails with some new twists.  First, the email contains a photograph of your home with a threat to contact you at your home, referring to your home’s address if you don’t pay the demanded Bitcoin ransom.  Second, the email refers to a type of Spyware called Pegasus that can steal information from you computer without being discovered.  In fact, Pegasus spyware does exist, but it is used only by government agencies.

In a recent development, four men in Ivorty Coast were arrested for their role in an international sextortion scheme that resulted in the suicide of Ryan Last a 17 year old from San Jose California.

TIPS

Scammers use services such as Google Maps to obtain the photos used in the emails and use AI to gather other personal information used in the email to make it appear more believable, but the truth is that they do not have the videos that they claim to have because if they did, they would show it to you in the email.

In regard to your web cam being hacked, while often this is merely a threat and the scammer has not hacked your web cam, however web cams can be hacked.  One thing you can do to protect your webcam from being hacked is to make sure that you change the default password on your webcam when you first install it.  Another simple thing I do and you can, as well, is to merely put a post it note over your webcam when it is not in use.  This is a technique used by the late Pope Francis and former FBI director James Comey.

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