DEFINITION

Malicious emails or calls intentionally made to convince victims they've done something wrong and that there's a serious problem.

• Sexual variations of this attack are referred to as "Sextortion"

DAMAGE

• May scare victims into paying a scammer money for a problem that doesn't exist. 

• Possibility of significant financial loss

• Untraceable payment methods

• Potential contact with cybercriminals.

EXAMPLES / USAGE

RECOMMEND ACTION

If you or someone you know have been a potential victim of this attack:

• Delete the email IMMEDIATELY!

• Never respond to an email by someone you don't know.

• DON'T OPEN any LINKS!

• Never EVER pay a scammer. If someone asks for payment via bitcoin, it will most likely always be a scam.

GOOD TO KNOW

• No, a random person does not have access to your computer, they aren't watching you do dirty things. In the event they are, an antivirus software will detect it. 

• If someone asks for payment via bitcoin, it will always be a scam. 99.9% of the time. Don't pay someone you don't know.

• Sextortion scammers typically spoof the email address to hide their own and disguise it as your own, to make it look like the email came from you. - A hacker does NOT have access to your account and if they did, they wouldn't do this. 

• Just to be safe, change your email account password.