- Did you recently receive an email with one of your old passwords in the subject line and a request for bitcoin?
- It’s a new kind of scam.
- The attacker probably took your password from a publicly available database of old leaked passwords and email addresses.
- Here’s how to keep yourself safe.
There’s a new scam going around that would terrify most people if it ever landed in their inbox.
The emails are slightly different depending on who’s being attacked, but they all have a few similar features:
- The subject line includes a password that you probably have used at some point.
- The sender says they have used that password to hack your computer, install malware, and record video of you through your webcam.
- They say they will reveal your adult-website habits and send video of you to your contacts unless you send them bitcoin, usually $1,200 or $1,600 worth.
Here’s one example of these scam emails, sent in the past month:
- Did you recently receive an email with one of your old passwords in the subject line and a request for bitcoin?
- It’s a new kind of scam.
- The attacker probably took your password from a publicly available database of old leaked passwords and email addresses.
- Here’s how to keep yourself safe.
There’s a new scam going around that would terrify most people if it ever landed in their inbox.
The emails are slightly different depending on who’s being attacked, but they all have a few similar features:
- The subject line includes a password that you probably have used at some point.
- The sender says they have used that password to hack your computer, install malware, and record video of you through your webcam.
- They say they will reveal your adult-website habits and send video of you to your contacts unless you send them bitcoin, usually $1,200 or $1,600 worth.
Here’s one example of these scam emails, sent in the past month:
Ian Kar, a New York-based product manager who was sent the scammy email, said that after he received this threat, he spent an entire day changing all his passwords and buying 1Password, a password manager.
He said he was pretty sure his password was included in one of the big leaks in the past few years – databases have been stolen from LinkedIn, Yahoo, and eBay, for example. You can check whether your password is in one of these leaked databases over at the website Have I Been Pwned.
More at https://www.businessinsider.sg/new-...hreats-webcam-video-bitcoin-2018-7/?r=US&IR=T
