According to the latest report from ESET Ireland, an email scam is making the rounds of many Irish mailboxes.
In the email, the scammer claims to be in possession of a purported video showing the victim watching child pornography. And in exchange for not leaking the video, the scammer demands a ransom of £5,000 (or $6,253) in Bitcoin.
What is Email Sextortion?
This is a classic case of email sextortion, where scammers try to trick users into thinking they have a video of them watching adult content. In return, the scammers ask for money to keep it from being published.
In many cases, the emails include authentic content, such as passwords and usernames, in order to make the ransom demand more credible. However, the primary purpose of the emails sent is to scare their victims into giving them money.
Sextortion campaign in Ireland
In the case of Ireland, scammers send emails with subject lines like “I know you’re a paedophile,” and “What on earth are you doing, a paedophile?” These types of messages usually cause confusion for victims, who rush to open the emails to see what’s going on.
The text that accompanies the email continues in the same vein as the subject line and says things like “I’ve been following you for quite some time” and “I know you’re rich and that you care about your reputation.”.
What can you do?
Blackmail messages have been on the rise lately, so if you receive any type of email claiming that the sender has a video of you, we recommend that you don't believe it and simply mark the email as spam.
Also, scammers may try to claim that an attachment in the email is your private video. We recommend that you do not believe this, as the attachment may contain viruses or spyware, which can affect PC .
