That scary hacker in your email who says he recorded you visiting an adult website — and wants you to send him bitcoin to keep quiet about it — is most likely just a scammer who bought your email address after a data breach.
Federal and state police across the country warned about a rise in the number of email “sextortion” scams this month. The Maryland State Police said in a statement on Thursday that reports of one sextortion scam targeting Gmail users surged in August and September.
In these scams, someone tells a victim they have access to embarrassing search history or compromising photos. The scammers then demand money or they will release it to family and friends. They’re almost always bluffing, police say.
Inducing fear and a time element are some of the most common tactics grifters use to get victims to quickly hand over large sums of money before anyone realizes they’ve been duped.
“Scammers want you to act before you have time to think,” the FTC says. “They might say your computer is about to be corrupted. They also might tell you to keep the conversation a secret from your friends and family.”
These types of email sextortion scams first surfaced in 2020 when there was a spike in the number of people reporting that someone had hacked their computers and recorded them visiting adult websites, the FTC said.
The FTC says that these emails usually come to victims after their personal information is leaked in a data breach. This means the scammers may have access to your email and even some of your current or former passwords, but they do not have access to your computer or search history.
“The scammers may say they have access to your computer or webcam, or installed clever software to defeat you. That’s all talk,” The FTC says.
Some scammers in Maryland even included images of the victim’s house from Google Maps in their threats to make them seem legitimate, police said.
The Maryland State Police advise caution when receiving “unsolicited” emails to your Gmail account to avoid becoming a victim of a scam. The department also advises against sharing personal information online.
Google told Business Insider in a statement that it “takes stopping threats like this seriously” and has “extensive resources to help people identify, report and if necessary, recover from these types of scams.”
“When cases like this pop up, we work closely with law enforcement to stop malicious activity and protect users,” the company told Business Insider.
