Sextortion emails on the rise in Australia, don’t engage: Kathy Sundstrom

This is the email that gets everyone’s attention. And, unfortunately, most people pay as a result of it, writes Kathy Sundstrom.

What would you think if you received an email that started like this:

“I require your 100 per cent attention for the next 24 hours, or I will make sure that you live out of shame for the rest of your existence.”

Possibly you have received one already, because IDCARE’s National Case Management Centre has received an influx of contacts from people who did.

The email then claims that the person “knows everything regarding you”, from your Facebook contact list, smartphone contacts and “all the virtual activity on your computer from the previous 163 days”.

Kathy Sundstrom is a former Sunshine Coast Daily journalist who now works at identity and cyber support service IDCARE. Picture: Patrick Woods.

In some cases, the email appears to have been generated from the person’s own account. And, more worryingly, the hacker can even quote the person’s correct password.

Naturally this gets attention straight away.

The email then claims the hacker has “video footage of the person masturbating and watching porn” and the hacker threatens to share this with your “friends, co-workers, boss, mother and father”.

“Will you be able to gaze into anyone’s eye again, I doubt it…,” the email reads.

The sextortionist then makes a “one time, no negotiable offer”, and that is the person purchases $2000 in bitcoin and sends it to an address.

Unfortunately, a large number of people have done this.

But, there is no guarantee the threats will stop. Once you start engaging with a scammer, you open a horrid can of worms that is very, very difficult to close.

There are a number of ways scammers are getting people’s email and passwords – most often from details in data breaches which can be leaked on various sites.

So what can you do if you have received an email like this and you are worried about what interactions a person may have recorded you doing in the privacy of your own home?

Our advice is delete the email and do not click on any of the links. Most of these emails are simply threats sent out en-masse in the hopes the scammer will find someone who is terrified this will happen to them.

Don’t engage!

Kathy Sundstrom is a former Sunshine Coast Daily journalist who now works at identity and cyber support service IDCARE.