KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is warning people about an uptick of an ongoing sextortion scam with a new twist.
Investigators said scammers are sending people threatening emails demanding a "hefty sum of Bitcoin." According to TBI, the scammers claim to have compromising webcam footage of people and threaten to send that to friends and loved ones unless victims pay up before a certain time.
There are several variations of financial sextortion crimes. Some involve real threats through social manipulation and some involve plausible fake threats. Some involve criminals targeting and manipulating their victims by posing as someone else over the internet. Once they gain the victim's trust, they encourage them to exchange compromising photos and videos. The criminals then threaten to upload those photos and videos unless the victim pays them a "ransom."
In this case, the emails appear to be sent out in large numbers similar to a "cold call" scam. The scammers make plausible threats hoping that victims will comply with their demands out of panic. TBI said these scammers have gotten a little more savvy about it, too.
TBI said the scammers will sometimes find personal details about their targets, such as names, phone numbers and addresses tied to the email address. Agents said criminals might even go a step further and find an outdoor image of your home using Google Street View and send that with the email.
"Scammers claim malware has captured compromising webcam footage of recipients and threaten to send the video and pictures to loved ones unless you pay a hefty sum in Bitcoin," TBI said.
There are several ways to protect yourself against sextortion. Here's what TBI said people should do:
- "Never send compromising images of yourself to anyone, no matter who they are, or who they don't say they are."
- "Don't open attachments from people you don't know, and be wary of opening attachments even from those you do know."
- "Turn off/cover any web cameras when you are not using them."