Very worrying email

Ignore it, bin it and forget about it.

You might want to change your passwords though.

Do not do nothing. Do not reply to it. Do not delete it. Report it to the police asap. The people who send these emails are criminals, no more or less than if they broke into your house and stole your jewellery. It is a crime and must be treated in exactly the same way as any other crime. Report it.

A friend in Spain had exactly the same - demand for a large amount of bitcoins (which she doesn't have). All you can do is change passwords but otherwise ignore it. Some time ago when there was a massive hacking, many accounts were broken into and passwords stolen so don't worry about it. Just change passwords and all will be well (till next time..)

I have heard of this. It's a cruel scam. YOU know whether or not you've visited porn sites and even so, it's your business, nobody else's. Don't be fooled. Report it to your ISP, let your contacts know and change your password.

Today at work a colleague was saying a n elderly man had come in early this morning and bought an Amazon Voucher for £150.00 thats all he bought, no shopping nothing, if he had come to my checkout I would have flagged it up with a supervisor as it wasn't the norm.

But who ever checkout he came through didn't mention anything, it could have been a temp checkout person.

This man could have had a similar email (then again it could have been quite genuine) but coming in very early we opened at 8.00, then to just purchase this one item, plus it was a high amount makes me suspicious. But unfortunately I wasn't able to act on it.

I have had the same email, awhile ago now. Do not worry. They do nothing. I did change my password though. It’s a terrifying email so I know exactly how you feel. I think it’s doing the rounds, some computer generated thing. Just delete or junk it.

This comes up regularly, same with messages on Facebook. I do not open them and I certainly do not send it on as these fraudsters have access to your friends.

I got this a couple of years ago. I simply ignored it. I changed my password and that was it. It’s a very common known scam.

You have probably had enough advice but this article from The Guardian is informative and hopefully may settle some nerves.

www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2019/jan/17/phishing-email-blackmail-sextortion-webcam

Just delete it. I ran several online businesses for years and got those emails all the time. I deleted every single one and that was the end of it. It is a scam - ignore. You can change the password they have if you wish but I must admit I never did and nothing has ever come of it. I have never frequented porn sites so did not need to worry on that score.

This is a modern form of an old crime known as blackmail. Report it to the police.

Hall green miss, I was going to say the same. Opening an email isn’t a problem it’s clicking on a link that gets them in.
I hope you get it sorted.
I had a series of emails last year, I am treasurer for a local group. I reported it and forwarded it to the phishing police. They sent me a computer generated response. I heard no more but I suppose the more info they (the police) get the better chance they have of tracking these horrible people.

I had one of these emails last week too. I was angry not upset. They demanded £1900 - ha ha ha ha ha!! I thought - who the hell would care if I was looking at porn? I don't work, my OH doesn't work, so who would care?? As I know I haven't been watching porn, and have no intention of giving anyone any money, I blocked the email, changed my email password, and also changed the password on my broadband router - my techie son had to talk me through this, as I had no idea the router had a password :-)

Don't worry about it. Don't get frightened. Don't give in. Change your passwords, block the email and hope they fall under a bus next time they go out.

I sincerely hope that is the end of it , and I can understand how upset you were. Thankfully you are mature enough to be able to absorb it and move on.

We heard recently on our local news the results of the inquest on a young teenager. He had hanged himself, and it was later discovered he had been the victim of what you describe.

There are no words that would ever help his poor parents and I would urge you if you haven't already to contact the police, in order to stop it happening to someone else , who maybe would be more upset and vulnerable and it could have devastating consequences . The police have a brilliant department for this very thing and the most up to date technology to help get the individuals behind these scams and hopefully bring them to justice.

It may not bring back the vulnerable and those who this was the final straw in a difficult life anyway but if it saves even one other person it will be worth it.

I had this last year around the same time I had the tax phone call one .I wasn't worried about them because I knew the details couldn't be right but it did annoy me .I printed the e-mails out and passed them to our local police station .The tax one I kept a note of the number and ignored it when it happened again.I changed passwords for all my accounts and fingers crossed its been fine since.

Please do not worry over this. It is a scam.I had a similar email and was shocked to see that they had used one of my passwords.It told me that they had used my webcam and had footage of me at which point I knew that was untrue! I changed my pass words immediately. They sent same email about 2 weeks later obviously to continue to see if they could scare some action from me-different sender address though. I reported it again as phishing scam.

I’ve had several of these emails and reported the first ones as phishing emails, but I rarely bother now, I just delete them. The thing to do is to change the password that they tell you they have and if you see any more delete them WITHOUT opening them. If you open them they know that your email account is active and will continue to target you.

The first one I got sertainly increased my blood pressure for a minute or two as I am the only person with access to my laptop and I wondered who on earth could have hacked into it to watch porn! I very quickly realised it may be a scam and googled it for confirmation, but it was a horrid feeling initially.

For some reason which I have forgotten I have [email protected] in my contacts, try that.

I had one of these very nasty emails and read it, thereby breaking the golden rule - never open emails from a source you don't recognise. I received some follow up emails from the same place, but didn't open them and never heard from them again. Wht nasty people these scammers are!

Thank you gillybob for starting this post. Now I won’t worry if I get one like this.

gillibob - I had exactly the same email some time ago and deleted it and did nothing. I'm glad to say that nothing's happened. I did however mean to change my password so I am glad you reminded me. Everyone's right we shouldn't open emails when we don't know the origin. I had a phone call today sending they were ringing to send me masks and hand sanitiser, they wanted our details. I just kept asking what is your link with the NHS or Government Departments. He said someone would ring me back but of course they will not!! One to watch out for I've no doubt they would have wanted a bank account number!!!

Report it to the police I am sure you will not be the only one getting these so it needs reporting the more people that report it the sooner it can be dealt with.

Dear Gillybob

This sounds as if it may be a re-emerging scam called a "sextortion email" or a "porn scam" Please don’t let them scare you! – check this out and see if it fits with what you've received.

All the very best (these people are absolute scum!!) ?

nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2020/04/10/sextortion-emails-and-porn-scams-are-back-dont-let-them-scare-you/

It's a scam email designed to frighten you which ofcourse it will.

Change your passwords and inform your email contacts for your own peace of mind.

If you Google where do I send scam emails you will get a web address to send it too!

Then delete and ignore. There is so many different scams about it pays to be wary and cautious everyone

I got the same message a couple of months ago. I knew I'd never looked at any such sites so just laughed and forgot about it. I get all sorts of phishing/scamming emails and the best and easiest thing to do is ignore them. Rest easy!!