Skip to main content

Porn Site Blackmail Scam - That Time a Scammer Contacted Me and What I Did

Have you received an email with a subject line or content that contains an actual password you use either currently or at some point in time (likely it's one you've been using for a few years)?

The email claims that the sender has footage from your webcam of you visiting a porn site for some 'fun' and threatens to release that footage to all your contacts unless you pay a specified amount to a supplied Bitcoin account.

It also mentions your password was obtained by installing malware on a porn streaming site that basically gave the sender access to your keystrokes, desktop, and webcam.

I've received such an email twice now. I've posted the second below. The first email requested a deposit of US$7000 to said Bitcoin account. This time that number has gone down to $1000 (Rude! are they saying I can't afford $7000? Spoiler, I can't but, rude!).

The actual email I received. Password changed just in case
I'm still using it on some site I've forgotten about.

Unfortunately I was kicking myself for deleting that first email because, shortly after, I realized it was a great opportunity for an article just like this.

If you've received an email like this, all you need do is retire that password for anywhere you're still using it (just to be safe) and delete the email.

The only part of the email that is actually true is the password is probably one you used or are still using after many years. The sender simply has obtained a list of login details from sites that at some point were hacked and had their account details published to the internet. This scammer is playing a numbers game. They're hoping enough people from their list will fall for the scam to make it worth while.

Want to know if a password associated with your email address has been published online? You can check at have I been pwned?

Internet Security 101

Big companies spend a lot of money on internet security and are hacked and compromised all the time (Sony is one example that springs to mind). The $99.00 you probably spent on Internet security software isn't going to protect you if someone really wants access to your data, desktop, webcam etc.

Just like the scammers, personal Internet security is a bit of a numbers game. The odds of someone hacking you specifically are pretty low if you're just an average Joe or Jane Schmo. Anyone targeting you personally is likely someone who knows you or you have some kind of relationship with.

Protecting your computers from hacking is still important (for the very reason I mentioned in the previous paragraph). That security software you have will probably work in the majority of hack attempts, but if someone really knows what they're doing, there isn't much you can do to stop them (but that's no reason to make it easy for them either).

Spotting Internet Scams 101

The first email I received in this Porn Site Blackmail Scam I deleted within five minutes of reading it. The only reason I kept thinking about it was because I hadn't received that specific scam email before, and, as I mentioned earlier, I realized it was a great starting point for an article like this.

As far as I'm aware not a single one of my contacts has received any video of me watching porn online. If you ever get an email like this, requesting money, saying you've won a ridiculous sum of money, or you've been chosen to receive an inheritance (to name just a few possible scenarios), do a Google search. For this particular email I searched Porn Site Blackmail Scam and learnt a new word, Sextortion.

Krebs on Security came up first in my search and the resulting article outlined the details of the exact email I received. It's not the only site with information, there were plenty of them - which is a good sign, in the sense you can be confident something is definitely a scam.

Always do a search first to see if anyone else has received a similar email. Given most scams are a numbers game, you're probably going to find plenty of fellow recipients.

Use Common Sense

Any hacker who has remote access to your computer, and is able to install a keylogger to capture account login details, isn't going to waste time blackmailing money from you. They could probably cut you out altogether, login to your online banking themselves, and make that money transfer long before you even noticed the money was gone.

The main take away from this article is to not take these scam emails at face value. Question their validity with a simple Google search.

Once you've established it's probably a scam, assess whether you need to take any precautions such as updating passwords, then delete the scam email and get on with your life.

You may be tempted to send a reply but this really isn't a good idea. It may focus the scammer's attention on you, and they may actually target you more specifically, since they now know your email address is active and not an old account you never check etc.

Digital Assistant or Listening
Device for Scammers?
Finally, remind yourself that we live in the future where people are installing live, internet connected listening devices in their homes, with newer devices also supporting video cameras and video screens. These devices are called 'digital assistants' and they can be used to collect sensitive information about you... so... maybe don't have one in the bedroom whilst you're engaging in a bit of 'couple time'. (If that's concerning try reading this article from Norton: Can Smart Speakers be Hacked? 11 Tips to Help Stay Secure).

Comments

Buy Gifts and Apparel featuring art by TET.

Popular posts from this blog

Movie Review: Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) *No Spoilers*

T his is another film that I would have liked to have seen in a theatre but, for whatever reason, didn't get to. Having now seen  Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga  (2024) almost a year later I'm glad I didn't. Which is not to say it's bad. Like its predecessor Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), which I enjoyed in a cinema immensely, this film would definitely benefit from being on a big screen for the spectacle and epic visuals of it all.  However unlike its predecessor there is so much going on, with back and forth between the waring parties, and Furiosa's story as well, you can't just sit back and kind of enjoy the ride. It's like writer/director, George Miller, wanted to cram in as many of his ideas as possible for the post apocalyptic world of Mad Max, because it's not likely he'll make another one, but whoever does, has a rich, detailed world of on screen source material to draw upon. The story begins with young Furiosa (Alyla Browne) and her journey from the ...

I'm Confused About Why People Prefer to Say Discombobulated?

D iscombobulated. Is a word that I think someone rediscovered about three or four years ago (maybe more because the pandemic years have thrown out my sense of time) and now I hear it a lot. It's not a new word by any means, but when I started hearing multiple celebrities using it in everyday sentences, I actively had to look up what it meant. Define it with as many synonyms as you like but essentially it's just another word meaning 'confused'. Seinfeld Quotes: Quotes.net The words are pretty much interchangeable. He was discombobulated by too many choices. He was confused by too many choices.  My confusion is the length of the word. It's unnecessarily long with too many syllables. There are many other words that mean confused, and therefore also mean discombobulated. Most of them are shorter and easier to say. So why not just say 'confused'? Perhaps discombobulated sounds more intelligent, maybe?  Hawaii Five-0 Quotes: Quotes.net I've noticed it gets us...

Second Sunday Skateboard Session Episode 3, 4, and 5 - Definitely Seeing Progress

TET, Episode 5 Heelflip attempt. C ontinuing my ten part series of Second Sunday Skateboard sessions , the series where I'm attempting to master all seven basic skateboarding tricks in Braille Skateboarding's Skateboarding Made Simple Volume One , over twenty weeks (or ten fortnights).  Each episode is a short Sunday check in to show where I'm at after each two week period of practicing. Generally I aim for at least an hour practice session every second day if weather or my work schedule permits. These are the links to Episode One and Episode Two  should you feel the need to see where I started.  I'm not a complete newbie, having been a relatively hardcore skater through the late eighties and early nineties, however I was mostly a mini ramp and curb skater, and never really maintained my skills beyond riding and ollies.  The explosion of council built concrete parks came a decade too late for me to maintain my mini ramp skills. Once we closed our own skate park in ...

Boom Crash Opera Born Classic But Not Again

Boom Crash Opera are an Australian Band that reached the peak of their popularity in the mid to late nineteen eighties. They are a band that I knew about at that time but was never really excited by until they released their ill fated double album Born and Born Again in 1995 (Album cover pictured). At the time of its release I was very much into emerging Australian musical acts and was also looking out for new sounds that were different and had kind of a futuristic/electronic sound. Artists that I was buying at the time included; Swoop , Nine Inch Nails and Pop Will Eat Its Self . As well as a really interesting release by David Bowie, the concept album, Outside . Born was a fairly radical departure for Boom Crash Opera (BCO). The first single, Gimme , was often compared to the sounds of Gary Glitter, particularly his single, Rock n Roll part 2 , because of the pounding drum loops. Watch the video below. My favorite single from the album is dissemble which probably went now...

Australian Federal Election 2025 - World's Most Boring Government Re-elected by Landside - We're Even More Fine!

Anthony Albanese Victory by ChatGPT and TET. W hen I started writing about the 2025 Federal election the polls were suggesting the world's most boring government was crusing to a defeat . As it turns out, boring is good, and Australia wants more of it, handing the current government a landslide win with a majority vote. Anthony Albanese became the first PM since John Howard to win a consecutive term, and the first Labor PM since Bob Hawke to do so. Some of that comes down to the leadership revolving door both major parties had through the mid 2000s. Although Anthony is my preferred PM over Dutton the irony is Dutton sounds more like a leader with a fairly commanding voice and an ability to speak well, without sounding like he's waffling and dodging questions, even if he is. Anthony, on the other hand, does have the ability (and speech writer) to say a lot of inspiring things but it gets lost in the delivery. He doesn't seem to know when to emphasise a point for effect. In h...

Australian Federal Election 2025 - Highlighting Some Minor Parties and Independents

W hile I am all for voting for minor parties and independent candidates, it can be concerning if too many of them win their seats. When independents hold the balance of power it gives them a lot of leverage to get their own policy ideas inserted into the mix. This is not necessarily a good or bad thing but it can slow everything down, and even sabotage policies and promises, that the government won the election with. It requires the government to work harder, and possibly make compromises, to get their policies implemented. Essentially they do what Australian pollical legend, and founder of The Australian Democrats, Senator Don Chipp, expounded in such simple terms, "keep the bastards honest." While I can't list and write about every independent and minor party candidate I can highlight a few, who already hold seats in parliament, and will no doubt be looking to hold onto them in 2025. The Conservatives Bob Katter - Katter's Australian Party There's a joke in the ...

Australian Federal Election 2025 - The Australian Democrats (Please Like Us Again) and The Greens

Image: Reve AI T here's not much to be said about the current Australian Democrats other than in 2025 Australian election, in May, they'll be out there hoping they win a seat... any seat... 'please like us again!' The Australian Democrats For just over two decades, from the late seventies onward, the Australian Democrats were the third most important party in the Federal government (if you don't count the National party since they've been on that coalition ticket with the Liberals for as long as I can remember). In fact, once I moved away from the Labor party, they were my top pick until the party slowly imploded in the early 2000's from a series of unfortunate events like leaders defecting to other parties, and a highly publicised incident of drunkenness, bullying, and abuse from a male party leader to a female colleague. It's been two decades since then (and that guy's with the Greens now)... please like us again! That aside, the party is still t...