Police warn of blackmail: If you don’t pay 1,000 euros, you will become a laughing stock

Fraudsters don’t always make the effort to lure you to fake banking sites in phishing emails to get your money. Sometimes they resort to tried and tested blackmail letters and ask you to pay directly. According to the Ludwigshafen Police Department, such scams are currently increasingly in circulation again.

The blackmailers claim that when you visited a pornographic website, your computer was infected with a Trojan that cannot be detected by your antivirus program. The criminals allegedly observed you for several months and had access to all your devices, including your camera and microphone.

The hackers are said to have a video in their possession that shows you masturbating. They are threatening to publish your emails and chat histories along with the recording. To avoid this, you should send 1,170 euros in Bitcoins to a specified wallet address within 50 hours.

There is no point in forwarding the message to others. The scammers are taking advantage of your sense of shame and are counting on you not taking any risks and simply agreeing to the payment.

You should not be intimidated by such a letter. Even if it contains personal information such as your email address, telephone number or address, it is a blatant attempt at fraud. Such a phishing email should end up in your spam folder without a response from you.

Simple signs: How to recognize every phishing email

A first indication that you have received a phishing email: You will be asked to confirm personal data or enter it on a website. This You should not comply with this demand under any circumstancesIn addition, criminals often use the official logos of the companies they are copying in their emails, but not official sender addresses.

If the sender seems suspicious to you, you should read the email twice. This will often help you find spelling mistakes or inconsistencies in German grammar. The attackers usually don’t write their emails themselves, but instead use automatically generated messages or translate known emails using a translation program. But why all the effort?

What do criminals achieve with phishing attacks?

Phishing is used on the Internet to collect real user data. Money can be made from this when email addresses, names and other information are sold for advertising purposes or passed on in criminal forums. With the data obtained, cyber criminals can also target future phishing attacks more precisely and their attacks become more effective.

Attachments and links contained in malicious emails often introduce malware or viruses onto your computer. And don’t ignore suspicious emails. Forward them to the email address above and help us report future phishing attacks.

More fraud warnings on netzwelt – Stay one step ahead of cyber criminals

But phishing emails are not the only danger lurking on the Internet. In addition to attempted fraud, there are all kinds of viruses, Trojans and malware that can infect your computer. Unfortunately, data scandals are also part of everyday digital life. You can see the five most recent articles on the topic of “fraud warnings” below:

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