Very worrying email

It's a con - but a awake up call to change passwords. Basically the sender has bought a load of information from a data breach at some big company. So they have your email, name & password for that site. They are relying on you being panicked [and not having different or have changed your password] . OMG they know my password it must be true. Look at www.haveibeenpwned.com/ and type in your email address it will tell you if it has been included in any data breaches. How do I know?? I had the same email you did and double checked

Contact Trading Standards who will almost certainly have a scams team, they are brilliant. Sorry this has happened to you, good luck in getting it sorted

Thank you everyone for your helpful and understanding replies. I am so glad that I posted as I was genuinely worried that these scum bags had control of my computer .

The “seeing me watching porn” bit didn’t really bother me as I know that couldn’t be true.

After having commented on this up thread, we actually received one of these again, last night, after the last one being about a year ago. It was word for word the same as before. We just deleted.

gillybob
I found the identical email from these people in my inbox the day after you got yours, quoting one of my passwords which I used to use years ago.
My daughter said it was from a gang who have purchased a bundle of email addresses and associated passwords hacked many years ago who are phishing for people with guilty consciences.

Then today I received this from our local OWL group:

Phishing Scam Alert: A Heads Up from the Met's Cyber Crime Unit

Dear Watch Member,

Please find attached/link this heads-up about a most recent phishing scam, as shared by the Met's Cyber Crime Unit.

Download Associated Documents
Documents accompanying this message are linked below. Click to download and open a file which use the popular PDF format. If you experience problems downloading or viewing a file please visit this help page.

New Scam - April 17th (73 KB)

Sorry. The link doesn’t work. This is the text

Sextortion scams are a type of phishing attack whereby people are coerced to pay a Bitcoin ransom because they have been threatened with sharing video of themselves visiting adult websites.
These scams are made to appear all the more credible because they provide seemingly plausible technical details about how this was achieved, and the phish can sometimes also include the individual’s password.
For more information please go here www.actionfraud.police.uk/sextortion
If you or someone you know receives/has received a sextortion email you can report the offending email here www.actionfraud.police.uk/report-phishing.
Phishes are designed to play on people’s emotions so that they will behave in a way which is out of character, and scams such as this are no different.
The phisher is gambling that enough people will respond so that their scam is profitable; they do not know if you have a webcam, have been visiting adult websites, or the means by which you communicate with people – in short, they are guessing.
The phisher hopes to emotionally trigger people so that they will ‘take the bait’ and pay the ransom.
What to do
· As with other phishes, our advice is do not engage with the phisher, and report it to Action Fraud: www.actionfraud.police.uk/report-phishing (then mark as spam/junk & delete it)
· Do not pay the Bitcoin ransom. Doing so will likely encourage more scams as the phisher will know they have a ‘willing’ customer.
· Do not worry if the phish includes your password; in all likelihood this has been obtained from historic breaches of personal data.
You can check if your account has been compromised and get future notifications by visiting: haveibeenpwned.com/
· If the phish includes a password you still use then change it immediately, advice on how to create
suitable passwords and enable other factors of authentication is available from Cyber Aware: www.cyberaware.gov.uk/passwords
· If you have been a victim of a sextortion scam and have paid the BitCoin ransom, then report it to your local police force by calling 101.
· If you need emotional support this is available from charities such as Victim Support by calling 0808 168 9111 or visiting: www.victimsupport.org.uk/

I had the same thing happen to me last August. Told me it had seen me through my webcam as well (haven't got one). Check your bank accounts and online shopping. I had odd attempted purchases as well. NEXT were brilliant a recognised it as odd, Amazon not so good. I had to reset everything, including a new email account. I lost control of my instagram page and Pinteeest account. I found the email quite upsetting. I reported to the police. There is an online fraud link. I am sorry this has happened, but reset everything, and once you have a new email, make sure it is never mentioned on the same correspondence as your old email where possible.

Sometimes emails go into spam which look as though they are from someone you know - the senders use a name that they've got from your address book. Always hover over the name and you will ten see the address that it's come from. If you don't recognise it, just delete the email. Don't even read it.

Stop all that contacts lark. I've had the same email. Forward a copy to City of London phishing site and then delete it. They know nothing and my phone and contacts have not been compromised. The email warns they have videos of me visiting porn sites on my computer, ( you have surprising tastes, it goes on to say)
It's a big con. I haven't used my laptop for 6/7 years ???
Ignore anything like that.

City of London Police phishing.
Google the address.

They also had an old password that I deleted more than 10 years ago but I still use the same email address. No problem.

Hi, yes I had this too. They said they’d hacked my computer and videoed me ‘pleasuring myself’ and if I didn’t pay them they’d sent it to all my contacts. Horrible. I agree with the other response you had suggesting that you sort out your passwords, absolutely do not respond in any way, just delete and delete from your trash. And forget it. Jerks, probably they get the occasional bite but they’re just fishing. Try not to let it get under your skin.

Do not click "reply" - not even to swear at them or tell them you are going to report them ... because then they'll know your address exists, and it can escalate. Change your password, and take a screenshot. If you have a Cyberbullying unit, forward the e-mail to them, with a note explaining why you are doing so. This is a scam. They try to scare you into ponying up money.

I had a similar email threatening and saying I had a peek into a certain s&m site and if I didn’t pay them blah blah blah I wrote on Facebook saying GET ON YER BIKE THIS IS A SCAM I sent leather trousers to my daughter for a special birthday and when she googled the maker up came all sorts of saucy leather goods NOT TRUE. I would never peek into these sites discard these emails immediately and change you’re password there’s horrible folks out there who are trying to get hold of your money.

Thank you Minerva for giving a contact email address of who will Deal with this should I get anymore of these emails

[email protected] is the NEW email address for the police Action Fraud team. If anyone receives any phishing or scam emails, please forward them to this address. You don’t need to add anything. The more they get, the more chance that these scammers will be stopped.

I have had similar emails. I just delete them. Up to now no further problems.

I've had a couple of these too. But I realised it was a scam when I read the bit which said "We have all your sexy photos, you little minx" .... It made me laugh ! An 82 year old little minx!
Just ignore and delete immediately.

I had one from (supposedly) apple the other day, about id purchased an online gym membership- i thought could be my son had bought it as hes missing going to the gym, and my sons both have iphones, but i dont- but it said if its not you to 'report here' so i clicked it-but it was to type in a apple ID, which i dont have, so i couldnt go any further- but my sons said i shouldnt have even done that! Now im living in fear of everything (info, money, details,etc.) being stolen.

Yes report before deleting them, or how will they get stopped.

I had what sounds like the exact same one last year. It is very upsetting and unnerving. However it is a scam and they’ve got your info off a previous breach. If you copy some of the text of the message and paste it into google you can find info on it and advice. It’s nothing to worry about, I’m sure you will have already been advised to change your password on whatever site was originally hacked. Delete it and forget it.

its a load of rubbish .they want your money. just delete it...my reply usually is what a load of b*******t.... mostly i dont reply....had one claiming to be the tax office no less looked official too...sent it to my brother for scrutiny. but it was a scam. tax office would send a letter NOT an email.... sent the dummy one to the tax office so they could see it.DELETE IT

two days ago i had one for tv insurance . let her rabble on for 5 minutes. then i said .you do know i dont have a TV ....?? not one that has digital output....end of call .hahaha

Don’t pay, delete the email.
Change passwords

Just looked on Google and there is a fraud department for suspicious emails. www.ncsc.gov.uk/information/report-suspicious-emails Take a look. I've never had a suspicious email as yet but they may be on the increase so it would be useful to know of these sites.