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I've received a disgusting extortion email

(69 Posts)
sazz1 Sun 09-Mar-25 21:39:22

I have 2 email accounts - one I use regularly and another I use very occasionally. I was checking the second and there were no messages but a few in spam. One dated 14th February had the subject line 'I've hacked you.' I read the email and it looks like it was sent to me from me on the letter but I didn't click reply to find out. Said it will know when I open it and I have 2 days to pay via bitcoin into an account or they will post disgusting videos and pictures of me to all my contacts. Called me perverted and several other names. I know it's a scam as I don't have any such pictures and never have. I clicked report as phishing and it disappeared. But I found it quite unnerving What do others think?

charley68 Tue 11-Mar-25 13:49:30

It is an awful thing to come across in your email, very unnerving

Don't ever open anything in your spam account, unless you absolutely know that a message has ended up in the wrong place. All these are phishing accounts, waiting to see who will bite.

IHateTheWind Tue 11-Mar-25 13:55:03

I get loads of these as my email address has (unfortunately) been available publicly for many years.

If you can, it's good to forward any phishing or extortion emails to [email protected] - the more that are sent, the better/faster the National Cyber Security Centre can deal with them.

IamMaz Tue 11-Mar-25 14:27:53

Just for info, this is the address to forward these emails to :-

[email protected]

Indigo8 Tue 11-Mar-25 14:29:41

I have done this many times IamMaz and they still keep coming so I wonder if there is any point.

Zappa Tue 11-Mar-25 14:48:54

I get these every so often. It's a scam, but unfortunately some people still fall for it, - it makes them enough money to keep trying. So spread the word, as they say Sad individuals. Personally, I wouldn't know how to access the sites they speak of, nor anything about bitcoin. However, the use of AI in putting together so-called incriminating photos seems to be possible. So take care what pics you put on social media snd keep thise accounts secure too.

Littlebea02 Tue 11-Mar-25 14:56:38

This is awful and really unnerving isn’t it! The Internet sometimes these days can make an individual feel like they’re being stalked. And that’s a horrible stressful place to be. All I’ve ever done is make sure I have protection on my computer and I never open anything that I’m not expecting or from someone that I know. That’s the best suggestion that I have for you under the circumstances. I certainly do understand that this is a horrible experience!

knspol Tue 11-Mar-25 15:10:32

I had a similar email last week, said it had videos of me in 'private moments' and was going to share with all contacts unless I paid so many thousands of dollars in 'litecoin'. There are no such videos so knew it was a scam but still very unsettling.
A couple of days later I had a scam message on Facebook from a relative, a few comments eg how are you etc and then a message asking if OK to 'share something' with me. Rang the person supposedly involved and definitely not from him. Seems his account must have been hacked.
These scammers are really wicked.

granjan66 Tue 11-Mar-25 15:14:01

I have had these in the past. Just delete.

Momac55 Tue 11-Mar-25 15:33:02

Although I agree it went where it should into spam it’s Still upsetting and unnerving so I would hardly say ‘no problem’ I think you could be a bit more understanding and supportive

suelld Tue 11-Mar-25 15:40:09

Gosh they are reviving this scam ? I had one of these years and years ago, although bitcoin wasn’t the currency! I just laughed, and deleted it, wondering where on earth they would find such non-existent images.
Nowadays however it’s a whole new ball game with AI and such realistic fake images circulating
But yes you did the right thing …report, then delete.
I’ve often said if a hacker got into my bank account, they’d be more likely to leave me some money in pity rather than take some out 🙄 but seriously even with nothing in the account they can do so any bad things that it’s always worth reporting any similar attempts at extortion!

kjmpde Tue 11-Mar-25 16:13:09

Just delete these and similar . Remember the scumbags send out thousands of these a day and just hope that one or two will pay. They would not know you by sight or anything else .

Kandinsky Tue 11-Mar-25 16:20:44

Had two of these over the years.
Really horrible.
It’s unbelievable how disgusting some people are and how low they stoop to get money out of innocent people.
As PP said, people have taken their own lives after receiving emails like these. ( the ones where they say they’ve recorded you watching porn )
Reporting them seems to do absolutely nothing.

wibblywobblywobblebottom Tue 11-Mar-25 16:45:14

They are E-mails trying to scare you into paying them money. I just delete them. I have an app on my laptop which can check to see if. I've been hacked.

Deepf Tue 11-Mar-25 17:34:54

I've list count of the number of these type of emails. I always report to [email protected]
I then delete 😒

FranR0618 Tue 11-Mar-25 17:40:54

Sadly, there are no pornographic videos of me anywhere. And I used to be so good-looking.

Cossy Tue 11-Mar-25 18:02:03

Report and delete.

These awful people send hundreds of these out daily and “hope” one or two hit their mark!

Mirren Tue 11-Mar-25 18:41:53

Definitely a scam.
I once had one from a person with a Russian sounding name which said they'd been hired by my business competitors who were jealous of my success.
If I didn't pay a fortune in Bitcoin they'd come and chop off both my hands!!!
I rang the police straight away. They were really kind and worried about me being upset.
I was just laughing... I don't, nor have ever had a business and I hadn't a clue what Bitcoin even was !!
That's years ago and I am still laughing..and I still have both hands !

SherrieB Tue 11-Mar-25 19:07:24

sazz1

I have 2 email accounts - one I use regularly and another I use very occasionally. I was checking the second and there were no messages but a few in spam. One dated 14th February had the subject line 'I've hacked you.' I read the email and it looks like it was sent to me from me on the letter but I didn't click reply to find out. Said it will know when I open it and I have 2 days to pay via bitcoin into an account or they will post disgusting videos and pictures of me to all my contacts. Called me perverted and several other names. I know it's a scam as I don't have any such pictures and never have. I clicked report as phishing and it disappeared. But I found it quite unnerving What do others think?

As others have said, this is a scam. I've also had the same email, and it completely freaked me out, even though I hadn't been watching porn, so the sender couldn't have had any videos of me doing what they said they'd caught me doing while I was supposed to have been watching said porn!
Anyway, this article may help to put your mind at rest.
www.scam-detector.com/article/received-an-email-from-your-own-address-beware-of-the-extortion-scam/

Mojack26 Tue 11-Mar-25 19:46:31

Delete it mark as spam and block

ElaineRI55 Tue 11-Mar-25 20:31:37

I've also had two of these recently - sent to the email I have for my church charity shop!
Sadly, some people must transfer funds to them or this scam would no longer exist. 😢

Alison333 Tue 11-Mar-25 22:24:24

Just delete it, total nonsense. I've had several of these. Spammers must think we're idiots!

Huia Wed 12-Mar-25 02:10:23

I would be really worried if I was young and beautiful because these people can take pornographic pictures and videos and attach your face so it looks like you. So not having any actual ones matters not at all. Everyhing can be faked even your voice and they are getting more and more believable.

absent Wed 12-Mar-25 03:10:14

It hardly ever occurs to me to look at Spam, but I do sometimes and occasionally find something that should have been routed to my Inbox. Maybe I should do that now as I probably haven't looked at Spam since last year!

Mauduit24 Wed 12-Mar-25 07:26:24

I have had a similar experience. I firstly forwarded the email to
Phishing @ report.gov.uk

Then I reset my password using two factor authentication.
Any suspicious emails don’t open them but please forward them to the above .
The national cyber crime security agency do trace them.
Don’t lose any sleep over them and don’t send them any money.
It’s a ruse to see if the account is active .

Snowbelle Wed 12-Mar-25 07:46:58

Use actionfraud to report this. They are good and follow up to make sure you are ok.

www.actionfraud.police.uk/