Very worrying email

Email your list of contacts telling them you are getting horrible, deeply offensive, criminal and threatening spam. Give them all a code that you will title an 'All Clear' email with, once you've changed all your passwords.

Then change all passwords.

I think I remember someone on here mentioning a similar email, gilly.

You must be able to report it online, I would think.

That's frightening Gillybob. Perhaps you could phone the " ordinary " police contact number and ask them for advice as I would if it happened to me.

Pity you opened the email ? That's the first entry into your account to these vile people.

Good heavens Gillybob that's scary, no wonder you're concerned. I wonder if you could contact your ISP and ask for their advice/assistance. Also as Gagajo recommends. I hope you get this sorted out quickly, you've got enough on your plate without this.

I would phone the police immediately gilly. This is something they have to deal with a lot and can advise you the proper steps to take. Good luck and hope it’s all cleared up quickly for you?

gilly
It's obvious that they've hacked into your email a/c.
What I would be doing right now is contacting everyone ( not by email) and tell them what's happened and not to open any posts unless they can verify the sender.
Then I would tell them to do their worst.
Don't be blackmailed: it won't stop.
Change your password right now to something very cryptic.

If you are in uk report to action fraud. Just search for threatening emails and there’s plenty of advice online and who to report to.

Don`t be overly worried Gillybob.
But contact your bank and tell them asap.
On-line now if possible.

Good point EV. I never open mail or text from people I don’t recognise.

You can report the email to the ICO and let them deal with it.

ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/nuisance-calls-and-messages/spam-emails/

I would also change your passwords (as suggested above).

On no account, send any money to these vile scammers!

Oh gillybob how frightening.
I would also report it to Action Fraud and like Gagajo said immediately change your passwords, let all your contacts know and create a code.
Have a good Easter and try and put these morons out of your mind - I really wish these morons would get a life and stop frightening people in these already stressful times.

GagaJo advice is sound, gilly. Take steps to make sure that all your personal stuff is safe and don't open emails from those you don't recognise - at least for a while.

Then - and this is important - CAN YOU PLEASE LAUGH ? I have lost count of the numbers of people in France (all English people) who have complained of this unpleasant scam....maybe 3 or 4 years ago? Some, actually were considering paying up. There's another version/threat which promises to give you a black screen which you will struggle to fix, unless you pay up. It can be fixed, you just need someone good with computers. (Or better than me). The "we know you've been accessing porn and we will tell all your relatives" is laughable. Well, that might work sufficiently to scare or worry some, but you must try to put it out of your head, or laugh at it. It's not personal, it's only intimidation and yet another way for immoral and skanky people to try to extract money from decent folk. Happy Easter, by the way. x

gillybob I think I remember other posters having the same thing happen to them. It’s a scam. I think, as others suggest you could perhaps text your contacts and tell them you are being scammed. Pass the email onto the link above and don’t reply to the email. I am so angry with the pathetic people who are adding to your worries at the moment by this unspeakable act. Take care gillybob and be assured they will be do8ng it to many others too.

I couldn’t possibly contact everyone in my contacts list as there are hundreds .... mostly work related . I’m just so upset about this. Can’t deal with much more cr*p .

I had this email last year . Just as a precaution I changed my passwords to all online sites I used . A pain but probably should do it periodically anyway .

gillybob I’ve just looked this sort of thing up on the internet and it seems these scammers send loads of these messages out at a time. Just tell your immediate family and then ignore it.

Oh gillybob this is a pain.
It happened to members of my team last year and one or two were very upset. Then it happened to me - but I knew it was nonsense. I advised the team to bin the emails and nothing else happened.

Sometimes when life is tough, as yours has been in recent months, small things become like ‘the straw that breaks the camel’s back’. Please try not to worry about this and my advice is just bin it and change your password ?

They probably don't have access. We get these a lot - come in waves then none for a while. They go straight in the junk mail and deleted. I wouldn't worry.

They have found one of your passwords, probably by illegally buying up databases when major sites have been hacked (we read about this now and then - Yahoo was one that had a major security breach a while back).

They then send this frightening email out saying they have access and know all your passwords, and all your activity. They don't. All they have is your email address and that one password. Just completely ignore them, delete the email, change all your passwords - especially any sites that used the password they claim to know - and you'll be fine. Also, bear in mind that they are likely to contact you again, possibly repeatedly, when they get no response from you. Just keep ignoring and deleting and they will eventually give up.

Don't worry, gilly, they definitely DO NOT know everything about you and your online activity. This is a well known scam - it's happened to me and to several people I know.

Oh really sorry about this. I would ring the bank and talk to someone. They seem to be pretty good and reassuring. I had something similar.

I had one of these and the password they quoted was my Gransnet password! I looked on Google and it is a well documented scam. I changed my passwords and deleted the post. Nothing has happened.

We had a warning about this at our supermarket briefing about 3 months ago.

Certain people (fraudsters)were contacting other people to tell them they either owed money, or like you they were saying you had watched porn.

The fraudsters then said you could pay them money in Amazon vouchers! not sure how it worked, think you would buy Amazon voucher then give the fraudsters the code.

We were told to be on the look out for customers buying large amounts of Amazon gift cards and paying cash.

Unfortunately I had already had a customer through a week or so before, it was a young male, he bought 3 amazon vouchers £300 and paid cash.!

Do NOT respond to them. This IS a Scam!! Change your passwords and ignore them.