Blackmail Scam

[Purple Frog]

It appears some scumbag has broken into the HRPworld computer and ripped all the email addresses.

I'm getting emails demanding $2,000 in bitcoin or the scumbag will tarnish my reputation. (How does one tarnish something that is already totaled? )

His emails arrive with the title: 1HRPworld1

[TimH]

Does he threaten to publish video taken from your webcam while you watched porn? The webcam you don't have?

The return address on those is always spoofed, and they could have obtained yours anywhere.

[Hartley]

It appears some scumbag has broken into the HRPworld computer and ripped all the email addresses.

I'm getting emails demanding $2,000 in bitcoin or the scumbag will tarnish my reputation. (How does one tarnish something that is already totaled? )

His emails arrive with the title: 1HRPworld1

Frog you could always get Morgan to defend you!

[Purple Frog]

My first meeting with Jim at the bar for him to consider taking this case would cost me more than the $2K.
Just saying.

[Keith Carter]

Wife just got a similar email with a legit password that she used 10 years ago.... Now I need to find those videos that the guy mentioned in his email...

[Mike B]

I just paid the $2,000 to be on the safe side.

[Earley Motorsports]

I got one too. It had my password was LOT. How did he know??? I fixed that, I changed it to LOT1. Now he will never know.

[Lynn]

I started getting these over year ago, but haven't gotten one in a couple of months. It was the password I used here and a couple of places I don't use anymore, such as Yahoo.

You can expected to get these everyday for months from hundreds of spoofed email addresses including your own.

[Joules5]

I recently started getting the demands too, any of the many mass data losses could have resulted in an old password being hacked. The trick is to change frequently, use strong passwords and not reuse on multiple sites.

A friend (retiree from Google) sent me this very useful information where you can actually check email address, passwords etc. to see if they have been compromised.

https://haveibeenpwned.com/ use the email or password tab to check whether either has been compromised or on the dark web.

https://1password.com/ The 1Password application manages passwords you only need to remember one strong one, plus this app. searches the above website to check if any of your accounts/passwords are listed and warns you to change your password on any hits.

[Steve Davis]

I, for one, will NEVER use a 'password safe' that is on the web ANYWHERE. I have a pw safe on my own local computer. No way am I putting ALL of my passwords anywhere where they could even remotely be accessed by 'unknown'.

Am I safe at home? I think so - even though my personal computer has 'no password' - I do have a secured router between me and my internet ISP and my home wifi password is secure enough that no one would ever guess it. And all that hokey on TV and movies where the bad guy/gal uses some sort of hardware to process through millions of possibles before it finds the right one.. in only something less than a minute, is just that.. hokey! It takes me more like 30 seconds to log into most any place I have to log into...each try takes at least that much longer and 99% of those that I care about kick out all tries for some 15 minutes or longer after 3 misses.

YMMV,
Steve

[TimH]

Am I safe at home? I think so - even though my personal computer has 'no password'

If someone has physical access to your machine there's no real chance they won't be able to eventually get into it, perhaps with something as simple as a Linux boot disk. In that situation, though, they're probably more interested in your medicine cabinet than your computer.

I do password-protect the hard drive in my laptop, though.

[jim morgan]

Frog,
If someone tarnished your reputation that would be an improvement.

[Steve Demeter]

If it was me and it was feasible I would find a white hat hacker, find the scumbag's physical location and show up at their doorstep in force........

[TimH]

If it was me and it was feasible I would find a white hat hacker, find the scumbag's physical location and show up at their doorstep in force........

Can you afford the airfare to Nigeria? The message usually has evidence that English is not the guy's first language.

Lately I've been enjoying robocalls warning me to call the IRS at a given number or they will "call the local cops."

[swiftdrivr]

I agree with Steve; no internet "safe" is really safe, and nothing on any "cloud" [somebody else's server] is likely to be safe either. Changing Passwords often helps, not having a webcam at least allows you to laugh off the common scams, and being boring as heck doesn't hurt either. Still, I get anywhere from 2 to 6 Phishing text-messages a day, disguised as invitations to view porn. I also get enough calls from "Elizabeth, a travel specialist on a recorded line" that my wife thinks we re having an affair!

Okay, now my paranoia is all riled up again. Have to go look up how to change my password for my e-mail again. Then I'll have to find my hidden list of passwords so I can write it down, again. And all to protect I'm not sure what. I don't bank online, so I'm not even sure what is at risk!

[FVRacer21]

The new thing is two-factor authentication, or 2FA. That is when you get a text with a code in addition to using your password to sign on.


ChrisZ

[Dave Harmison]

Fortunately all my financial stuff is 2 factor and that’s what I care about.

It’s been suggested by people that having unique passwords at least allows you to know which site was compromised but I’m too lazy to do that with all the sites I use like Target, Walmart, etc.

I do find the “English” used by these scammers interesting. It all winds up automatically in my spam folder.

[EACIII]

I us unique passwords but have to keep a written list as I have well over 100. Many of the banking ones are on a list in a safe. Would not trust putting them on a service or even my computer. There is no such thing as a secure internet site.

Ed