Beware and Protect Yourself from Sextortion Emails
Posted on Nov 16, 2021Recently, sextortion and fraud emails are rising rapidly. These are threatening emails alleging that the recipient has been monitored conducting personal activities while watching pornographic videos.
Sextortion scams are a type of phishing attack whereby people are forced to pay a bitcoin ransom because they have been threatened with sharing embarrassing videos of themselves visiting adult websites or sharing other sensitive information to the recipients' entire contact list.
These scams claim that they’ve installed malware on your computer, and been able to watch, track and record all your online activities. They look credible as they provide slick technical details about how this was achieved, and sometimes the email also includes the recipient’s password. The password that they sometimes include may be real, however, it is also probably your old password. Those passwords are available on the dark web.
One of the example of sextortion emails looks like this:

What to do if you receive a sextortion email?
In case you received sextortion emails, do not panic. These emails are designed to play on your emotions, striking fear by saying things that would be true for the majority of people. But they probably don't have access to your computer nor the information they claim to have.
Whatever you do, don’t click on anything. You may simply delete the email and move forward.
But if you’re still worried, the other thing that you can do is to use a 2 factor authentication (2FA) if your service provider has it. This is to add an extra layer of security to your account to prevent someone from logging in, even if they have your password.
This extra security measure requires you to verify your identity using a randomized code sent via text or email each time you attempt to log in.
Remember, when you receive these kinds of email, be calm. Search for similar emails online, see if other people have received the same email. And, if they really have your data or alleged video, they'd send proof by attaching a screenshot or a clip.