Extortion email scam claims to have video of email recipient “self-abusing”

An extortion email scam came through our cyber letterbox this morning that was certainly… different.

We see all types of different scams come through the email addresses we use as bait, but this one definitely caught our attention. It’s a tad risqué, so reader discretion is advised. (Additionally, we’ve got an updated article here about how crooks are using leaked passwords in conjunction with this email scam.)

Extortion or blackmail email scams are relatively common, and work by blackmailing the email recipient into paying a cash sum or else the crook will release some form of embarrassing or sensitive information about the recipient, or launch a cyber-attack against the recipient. Some versions even claim that an undisclosed person has put a bounty on the recipient’s head and they have to pay up or be killed by the crook who poses as a professional hitman.

Now, many of these email extortion scams are sent out en masse, untargeted, to thousands or even millions of email recipients. As such, the crook is basically bluffing; there is no embarrassing or sensitive information to be leaked; there will be no cyber-attack; there is no bounty on the recipients head. The crook just hopes the recipient believes them and pays up.

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Since the crook can send out this email scam to millions of different users, they may very well pick up a handful of user’s who are willing to pay. In which case, easy money.

Many examples of this scam claim to reveal the recipient’s “embarrassing Internet browsing history”, others claim to reveal that the recipient is a member of adult-related websites. This one, titled “Inattentiveness is your worst issue“, to put it bluntly, threatens to expose a video of the email recipient engaging in some solo self-pleasuring. Or as the crook describes it, “self-abusing”.

Good morning!
Dont mind on my English, Im foreign.
Your OS is controlled by mine malware.
At present all your confidential background sent to me. Additionally I received slightly more evidence.
The most entertaining evidence which I have- its a record, and you are wanking on it.
You set my deleterious soft from a phishing web page with porn. When you clicked on a porn videotape, my malware at once loaded on your OS.
After loading, your front-camera made the video with you self-abusing, furthermore it saved exactly the porn video you watched. During 3 hours my deleterious soft captured all your social and work contacts.
If you wish to destroy all the compromising evidence- transfer me 309 euro in BTC(cryptocurrency).
Here is my Bitcoin number –

You have 22 h. from this moment. When I receive transaction I will eliminate the video evermore. Other way I will send the video to all your contacts.

The bottom line, the crook claims to have installed malware on the recipients computer, and that malware activated the recpient’s camera and made a video of them “self-abusing” to an adult video, and unless the recipient pays up, they will send that footage to all of their work and social media contacts that the malware also stole.

Don’t worry. None of it is real.

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It’s a novel and audacious scam, and we hope no one falls for it. There are a few ways you can spot an untargeted extortion scam. For example your name or none of your personal details are included in the email, and the spelling and grammar will be poor or seem odd.

It’s worth remembering that untargeted extortion scams like this that try to trick you into paying money are far more common that those crooks who really do have something they believe they can try and blackmail you with.