Warning: Extortion scam email containing very personal information about you

RALEIGH, NC (WTVD) — A warning about an email that might land in your inbox claiming he caught you doing bad things, and they caught it all on video.

Several ABC11 viewers shared ABC11 Troubleshooter an email they received with the viewer’s address, a photo of their home, and other personal information. The email begins by saying, “I suggest you read this message carefully.”

The email reads: “We are talking about something serious and I am not playing games.” The email claims that the person has done bad things after spyware was placed on his phone, threatening to release this content to his phone contacts and social media. Alyssa Parker with the Better Business Bureau of Eastern Carolina warns that people should not act if they receive this email as it is a scam. “If something comes at you in a threatening way, it’s usually a warning sign, not something legitimate,” Parker said.

Zulfikar Ramzan with Auraan identity theft protection company agrees with Parker, adding that dealing with these emails could put someone in an even worse position. “I would tell the average consumer not to bother. They probably don’t have your data, and even if you gave them money, chances are they wouldn’t stop, they would keep chasing you come and blackmail you,” said Ramzan.

The email contains a QR code and statuses to prevent anything from being shared with your contacts. You can click on the Bitcoin QR code and pay $2000. Parker added: “Anyone can create a QR code and unfortunately scammers will do that and use it in a very threatening way.”

Ramzan says scammers are gaining access to information including photos of people’s homes, exact addresses and personal information, sometimes including social security numbers, because not only is some information public information, but also because of massive data breaches. “We had a massive 2.7 billion data breach with the B records stolen from the national public database. That information is now a variable goldmine because scammers and scammers have linked that data to what they can find about you through other sites,” Ramzan said.

Ramzan also said that it is not difficult for scammers to use public information about people and combine it with information from the dark web to scam them. He adds, “They’re easily accessible, and when you combine all that, you can add a photo of your house from Google Maps and a few other things. You can make a pretty compelling case to the average consumer that they’ve been compromised.” , and that’s perfect fodder for blackmail.

It is important to take steps to protect personal information. You can go to websites that post public information and request its removal. If you receive a letter or email stating that you were part of a data breach and you are being offered free credit and identity checking, take advantage of it. You can also purchase identity theft protection or insurance.

“It’s inevitable that your data will be compromised, we will be the victim, and if that happens, insurance essentially allows you to better manage and mitigate the financial impact of that loss,” Ramzan said.

If you are a victim of identity theft, it is critical that you take immediate action. File a police report and check your credit report, which you can still do for free at Annualcreditreport.com. If anything seems suspicious, report the fraud.

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