Scam Alert: Emails Claim to Know Your Porn Habits, Demand Cash (AVN)

Read the full article by Michael French at AVN.com

A new and alarmingly effective scam targeting fans of online porn has already separated victims from almost $40,000 of their cash, paid in BitCoin, according to a report by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Actually, the scam is targeting non-fans as well, the CBC reports, and appears to be connected to a 2012 hack of the business-oriented social media site LinkedIn.

The scammers appear to have obtained passwords from the LinkedIn hack, in which approximately 100 million LinkedIn users saw their personal and login information stolen. The scammers use the password to persuade victims of their authenticity—and then launch into the blackmail pitch.

“I have installed malware on an adult video site,” a typical email will claim, according to a report by Fox News. “While you were watching video clips, your web browser began operating as a RDP (Remote Desktop) that has a key logger.”

The scam letter will then claim that the “malware” has allowed a hacker to take control of the victim’s computer camera and record video of the user watching porn “to experience fun (you get my drift),” the email will say, according to a report on the scam in The Miami Herald.

Next comes the coup de grace. The scam email will then threaten to “send the video to all of your contacts”—unless you pay up. A typical email will demand payment of at least $1,000, remitted in the cryptocurrency BitCoin.