You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!
When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.
When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.
I have received an email in my junk folder which has an old password of mine which means they have accused my computer at some stage also may have seen my contacts and they are associating me with a porn website , They are demanding money to clear .They have other info about me and I don't know what to do . Can anyone please advise me as I am very worried.
You are welcome. It is actually quite a common scam attempt, with many such posts here weekly. They are usually along the lines of: we have pictures of you, or videos of you, doing something unflattering, with an email address where Bitcoin payment is accepted. If you don’t pay the money, they will release the unflattering photos/videos to everyone in your contact list ......... sound familiar?
A little further reading: Recognize and avoid phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support
And: Phony "tech support" / "ransomware" popup… - Apple Community
You are welcome. It is actually quite a common scam attempt, with many such posts here weekly. They are usually along the lines of: we have pictures of you, or videos of you, doing something unflattering, with an email address where Bitcoin payment is accepted. If you don’t pay the money, they will release the unflattering photos/videos to everyone in your contact list ......... sound familiar?
A little further reading: Recognize and avoid phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support
And: Phony "tech support" / "ransomware" popup… - Apple Community
Hi Stedman, Yes I know it goes on but I have no flattering or unflattering photo's for them to blackmail me with. Who would want a picture of a 75 year old dinassour? In the email they mentioned a scan of me. I do remember a few years ago while browsing the web I suddenly had laser beams shining through the camera and wondered if it was related. How would they get that?
As with all such emails, do not interact with the message or the sender. They have not had access to your computer, instead the passwords were stolen as part of a data breach at any of several websites that have been hacked over the years (Facebook, yahoo, LinkedIn, etc).
Criminals have purchased thousands of megabytes of hacked information, and try to recoup their money by extorting innocent people.
As steadman1 said, it's a scam, disregard it. They got the password in a data breach of a website that you use the password on, go to the site(s) that you use that password on and change it if that concerns you. Do not under any circumstances interact with the scammers.
Hi stedman1
Many thanks for the reply, I really hope you are right. I deleted the message and it seems to have disappeared from my deleted files ,probably encrypted .
J
Blackmail email
