Email Ransom Scams

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Has anyone received any email fraud/ransom scams? I know they are rife at the moment.

I just noticed that I received one a few days ago that went into my junk mail. I have just got done reporting it. The email said it had my password and the password they gave was correct!! I use this password for so many different things so I have no idea where they picked it up from. This is the most concerning thing because it’s actually true that they know my password.

They also said that they have access to my Facebook and phone contact lists. They said they once hacked my webcam and took explicit images and videos of me and have threatened to send these to my contacts unless I pay 2000 USD. Even though the rationale part of me is saying ‘it’s not true’, it still just makes you panic and think ‘but what if’. I actually haven’t accessed my laptop in many months (only one day last week to check some documents saved in there) so again the rationale part of me knows that they don’t have anything. The email also said that they can see when I access the email so know when to start the 24 hour count down.

It honestly sickens me that people do this! The email was so threatening, stating that I am under their ‘control’ and that they will make my life ‘hell’ if I don’t obey. They say you should try to ‘play smart’ because they are watching. This is honestly so sick!

Has this happened to anyone? What was the outcome?

Sorry, just had to vent my anger and frustration about these twisted people somewhere!! I guess I’ll have to go around and change all my passwords.
 
I had one of these the other day. It's definitely a scam, but it is scary that they had the correct password I have used for loads of things. I have changed my password on all my accounts, other than that I'm not sure what else I can do!
 
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I get these, had about 5 in total. They get the password from an old data breach and hope, like you, people still use it and they get scared. Lucky for me it was a very old password so i ignored and reported the email. If you google there’s lots of forums about these type of emails and as above I recommend the haveibeenpwned site. I actually had an IT seminar in work about passwords and they asked us to enter then into the computer to see how secure they are. They actually used data from have I been pwned so definitely legit and useful site.
 
Yes I get these as well, I know where mine was from I got some sent very realistic text messages from EE claiming my phone contract hadn’t gone through. I put a username and password in and then I realised it was a scam. I changed everything immediately afterwards then a month later started getting these messages.
 
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I have had a few similar emails mentioning old passwords I have used in the past. I just made sure to change my passwords and not use the same one for everything.
 
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