Blackmail email - how likely to be real?

Slithery

Nelly1234 wrote: »

They have now managed to email me from what appears to be my own email to my email.

The vital word there is appears. It's trivial to spoof the sender address on an email and it is no indication as to whether or not they've 'hacked' your account (they haven't).

JJ_Egan

Message source ??
Via View

Message Source
Block Source in message filters .

DocQuincy

The most convincing ones are when they contain a password you used to use. What they've done though is worked out your password from a forum type website that got hacked that didn't use sufficiently secure password hashing. A good password manager alerts to this kind of stuff as it will check a breaches database.

I use Gmail for personal and G Suite for work email and have found to Google's credit their filter has so far been 100% effective at putting these (the ones above) into spam and marking them as dangerous.

As Slitherly said, sending an email that purports to be from someone else is so, so easy. Nowadays emails that do this without permission tend to get marked as suspicious thankfully.

A handy hint if you use Gmail is you can check the veracity of an email by clicking Show Original. You'll see something like this:

SPF: PASS with IP 111.222.333.444 Learn more
DMARC: 'PASS' Learn more

SPF and DMARC are two ways to check the sender is who they say they are. If either fails (though they won't necessarily be set up — it depends on the account it's coming from) it would raise a red flag. Generally Gmail will put it in spam or warn you when you open it if anything is dodgy but it doesn't always pick everything up.

Neil_Jones

You can always send Blackmail correspondence to head office, which is Behind The Hot Water Pipes, Third Washroom Along, Victoria Station.

But seriously though - emails like this are usually just rehashed Nigerian Scams in new packaging. They can usually be deleted with no consquences.

droopsnoot

I've had a few of these recently, and another one this morning. Like others on here, it's disturbing that they appear to have found a password that I have used in the past, but equally as it specifically states to have hacked into my webcam, I am not worried as I don't have a webcam.

stragglebod

droopsnoot wrote: »

I've had a few of these recently, and another one this morning. Like others on here, it's disturbing that they appear to have found a password that I have used in the past, but equally as it specifically states to have hacked into my webcam, I am not worried as I don't have a webcam.

Yes, I'm looking round your living room now and can't see one anywhere

virgo17

Well after many years I finally got my first one of these this morning.

Big disappointment though, not a password that I have ever used on any log in or account, and not a webcam in sight in my office.

:rotfl:

[Deleted User]

droopsnoot wrote: »

I've had a few of these recently, and another one this morning. Like others on here, it's disturbing that they appear to have found a password that I have used in the past, but equally as it specifically states to have hacked into my webcam, I am not worried as I don't have a webcam.

Use https://haveibeenpwned.com/ to find out when and how your details were hacked. Don't forget to try any other email addresses.

Geodark

AndyPix wrote: »

Thats right - or they wouldnt bother sending the mails ..


Look at it like this :-


It costs around £65 to have 1 million emails sent for you.


Now, if a mere 1% of recipients open that email, that is 10,000 people reading the mail .


And if a tiny 1% of those initial 1% actually act on it and pay, that is 100 payers !!


Now even if the price is as "low" as £10, you can see a return of £1000 for your initial investment of £65


Now you see why you get so many spam emails every day, because the [EMAIL="b@stards"]b@stards[/EMAIL] are raking it in - even at those extremely conservative estimates !!

Never thought of it like that, got a link to where I can send the emails for £65, going to pack in work and resort to this to make my money instead :rotfl:

tronator

When you google the Bitcoin address, the first hit will be this site.


https://www.bitcoinabuse.com/reports/1Po6B4pnHo89Ud5BpFgLfYeG9a4bEiCyB3


So you're not the only one who got the same email.


You can also see how many people paid the scammers


https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/1Po6B4pnHo89Ud5BpFgLfYeG9a4bEiCyB3


I got 2 of these emails in the last 2 days and nobody paid yet. Another email from a month ago got ~70 payments after 2 days :eek:


https://www.blockchain.com/btc/address/1G1qFoadiDxa7zTvppSMJhJi63tNUL3cy7