E mail hacked ?

With Gmail and I believe other email providers, a sender only has to request a "delivery verification" to know if the address is live.

Therefore deleting the account following receiving one of these threats is useless as the fraudster will know you have received it even before you open the email.

Ignore it

I have had a text sent at 00.37 this morning from Santander (allegedly) saying that my online banking has been disabled and suggesting that I go into a branch to reactivate it or click on a link in the text.

Has anyone else who uses this bank had a similar text?

I checked and the online banking hasn't been disabled but I will report it to the bank so that they know about it.

trendygran Nothing bad will happen. That old password won't get them into your account now. They have bought an old list of stolen passwords and are "flying a kite" to see if anyone still using them is feeling guilty about watching porn and will pay up. That doesn't apply to you, so don't worry.

It is always a good idea to change your passwords frequently, though.

As others have said, NEVER REPLY OR RESPOND TO THESE EMAILS, or any kind of phishing or spoof emails.
If you reply, you will alert the scammers to a live email address. They will sell your proven active email address around the world!
In this case, you must report it to to the Action Fraud Team in London. Forward the email to [email protected]
Then go online and complete an attempted fraud report at Action Fraud.
It’s vital you do this.
Action Fraud can track down the perpetrators and bring their websites down. They can warn organisations and vulnerable people about the scam. They can also advise you what to do next.

This whole thing is toxic and criminal, and is very worrying to normal people like ourselves. I just delete anything I don't like the look of.

Had a very disturbing email a few days ago saying that unlessI paid a huge amount he /she would release videos of me watching porn to everyone.. -exactly the same as you edsnana. Again they used part of an old password I used a long time ago-and that IS what scared me most.I deleted the email in spite of threats and just hope that nothing bad will happen. Am widowed so maybe should try and do a virus check myself.,

petalmoore But can the email supplier monitor folders that you have made yourself, that are only on your computer? That would be as invasive as a hacker. Surely they can't do that?

Report it to the police and Action Fraud

Think about it. If someone could stand invisibly at a supermarket checkout queue and whisper into each shopper's ear as they waited, "I have been watching you and I know what you have been up to! Put £10 into the unmarked collecting can on the windowsill over there or I will get you into a lot of trouble!", they would get a surprising number of "catches" and go home richer. That is what these blackmail scammers are doing - sending bulk emails to a lot of people and putting the wind up those who have been watching porn and are afraid to report the scammers in case they get found out themselves. If you get one of these scams, don't just bin it, forward it to your email providers so that they can collect evidence against them.

And don't reply to it however angry you are. That tells them that they have a live address which they can target again in the future.

I have had the one about porn sites too, more than once. The sender claimed to know my password, and it is a password I use, but not for email - only for signing up for newsletters. I imagine the spammer got my details from a mailing list, and as you say, edsnana, the email is just an attempt to extort money. I use Gmail, which has a very effective spam filter, and I’d advise anyone getting variants of this email to put it in ‘spam’ or ‘junk’ - the most common names for a folder which is monitored by the email provider. This gives them they evidence they need to ensure that as many dodgy emails as possible arefiltered out of your inbox in future, and other people’s as well.

A great ideas to share details on here, since I agree it’s sometimes hard to tell they’re not genuine, and we can all help each other identify such ‘phishing’ and to take appropriate action.

Here’s a link to a helpful article about this issue - it’s a US site but computers are the same the world over, so that isn’t an issue.
www.lifewire.com/what-and-why-spam-email-1173993

Let's face it, if these scammers had gathered any significant details from the OPs device they would have used those passwords or banking pin numbers etc without informing the user involved.

In that, they would have taken money from any bank account that the scammers had access to or ordered goods with passwords they had obtained without the person suffering the fraud knowing, and been on their way.

This is a scam that is being played out on people the fraudsters feel may be vulnerable to being "frightened" due to age or disability and will, therefore, pay up on what is in all probability an empty threat.

These people can gain many thousands of email addresses by purchasing them cheaply on the dark web and then sending out these threats in vast blocks worldwide. As stated if only one in many thousands "coughs up" the fraudsters make a good living.

Another thought should be, if these scammers really had hacked into the OPs computer or other device, the usual practice is to lock that device and only when money is paid to the hackers is the device unlocked.

Think about it.

NEVER answer that kind of e-mail. By doing so, you might well be giving a competent hacker access to your computer.

Even if there are no files that would cause you embarrassment if they were published, you don't want them accessing your bank account!

DO NOT RESPOND!!! And did they address you with: "Hi" followed by no name? This always indicates that they're sending these things out generally and randomly, so you shouldn't worry, but it's always good to up your online security. This happened to me, too, about a week ago, and it IS scary and upsetting. I changed my password (not a bad idea anyway) and bought some more anti-virus software. I will investigate Google OS. Thanks for that tip, Granddad1943.

I got an email that quoted one of my old passwords and told me I’d been seen in porn sites and they had webcam evidence of me “doing dirty stuff “ (their words). I obviously hadn’t been but it unnerved me that they had accessed a password. I deleted the email and changed all my passwords immediately. It did make me laugh at the time. Definitely don’t respond because that confirms the email as “live”. Don’t worry too much.

Forward it straight to: [email protected] ....

I telephoned HMRC and was told they NEVER send emails. If you are due a refund they will write to you.

only 3000 edsnana bargain they wanted 7ooo off me ..lol.I have never looked at porn in my life so I knew instantly it was a scam.I didn't like the fact they could get onto my e-mail so easily though .

I too had a very threatening email this week, but as I don't visit porn sites or know how to use the web cam, it felt like an attempt to scare me into parting with $3000! I have to say I saw it at about midnight so consequently didn't sleep very well that night. what did concern me was the fact that I recognised the password quoted in the text. I realised fairly quickly though that it was an old one that I haven't used in years. My husband ran a virus check, etc so hopefully all is ok now

Anyone who counsels replying to these emails needs their heads examined. You delete. Do not respond.

Delete it without responding. Watch out for similar emails or different kinds of scamming spam as they know that it is a real address once you have opened it and can sell it on (unless they bought it themselves. They often have computers that just run random letters and numbers).
I am surprised that it didn't go into spam. Maybe do a search on your email provider to see if there are any reviews as to how good they are at blocking spam. GMail aren't bad, sometimes overzealous, but some don't block much at all. That one really should not have got through.

Yes...several, all with the same blurb in the body of the text but 'signed' with a different name, each alleging they have the password to my email address (which they typed - they were all wrong)
They also alleged to have listened in to my phone conversations, have proof of my texts, videos, photos and undesirable sites I have accessed and will spill the lot onto all social media my contacts and family.
Not to have this happen will cost me.
Well...if I was minded to contact them through the link (which I am obviously not going to do) I would say 'Go ahead, make my day', knowing it's a scam.
What makes me annoyed though, is the fact that it's my main email address, only known to family, my banks, HMRC, pension providers and other 'important' government scrutinised companies.
For the dross in my life I have 2 gmail addresses.
I have contacted ActionFraud, police that's all anyone can do. I'm not worried by empty idiotic threats from t0$$ers.

Please don't answer and if anything else like this pops up just delete it. I was sorely tempted to send a rude response when I kept getting emails from a cleverly composed site that looked exactly like HMRC when I was at work, asking for sort code and bank account numbers to repay the business a huge tax refund. A colleague warned me that even opening the email can sometimes give the sender more details . 'Don't know how this could happen but just in case, delete them.

Well, they are welcome to the proud pics of full potties that apparently grandma should see!

NanaMacGeek, as you state Google OS can only be run from a Chromebook laptop or one of the desktop Chrome OS devices recently introduced. Users of those devices have all their apps and files contained one hundred percent within the Google Cloud servers, and therefore nothing but the operating system needs to be held on the Chromebook itself.

Therefore all emails sent to a recipient using a Chromebook will be held on the Google servers and be checked for viruses and malware before being opened by the recipient. In that, no security software (antivirus etc) needs to be installed or running on the Chromebook itself making usage far easier for the user.

Emails sent from a Chromebook again pass through and are held on the Google cloud servers and are security scanned before being passed on to the recipient's servers (example Hotmail). Therefore, the Google OS system is very secure and as stated in an earlier post has never been hacked in the near eight years since its launch.

Of course if a user of an email address has other devices not operating on Google OS, then opening emails on those devices will expose the user to security vulnerabilities if antivirus software is not installed and up to date.

The Google OS system was initially launched for students and senior school children. In that, if little Jimmy dropped his Chromebook down the toilet, his parents could just buy him another of the cheap laptops and Jimmy just logs in to his OS account and all his homework etc is there on the cloud servers.

Google OS and Chromebooks have now moved on (much to the surprise of Google at times it would seem) to now become a prominent and growing system in company use.