A new email scam is using sextortion to swindle victims out of thousands of dollars.
The scammer gets access to one of your passwords and makes an alarming threat.
In the emails, the scammer says they used malware to hack into your webcam to record you, not just watching porn, but also hacking into your webcam and record you engaging in an activity.
The scammers threaten to send the video to people in your contacts list if you don't pay up.
Andy Green a cyber security expert with Kennesaw State University, said he's been monitoring this scam on social media. He's found that at least $15,000 has been paid to bitcoin wallets associated with the scam.
11Alive wanted to verify if what the scammer is alleging is even possible.
"Technically it's possible but the nature of the attack is simply playing on the end users fears," Green said. "These passwords that are being shared with the victims have come from any number of sources where a site or an organization has been compromised. These credentials are traded on the black market."
"The first thing you have to understand is don't' panic., and I know it's easy to say sometimes difficult to do but do not panic," Green said. "If you're just looking at regular pornography we're talking about maybe about societal or may be familial or maybe professional embarrassment but you've done nothing illegal."
As Green said, the password scammer is legit; but the sextortion portion is a scam.
Experts said there are things you can do to protect yourself:
- sign up for an email monitoring service that will send you notifications if any of your online credentials have been compromised
- create different passwords for each account.
- change your passwords regularly
Another thing Green mentioned is the website,"Have I Been Pwned?". It allows you to see if your email has been compromised.
