What I am about to put on this site is something that I have no idea where in the world this came from. I am basically being black mailed by some freak on some server. They told me that I have just viewed Child Porn and if I don't send some bitcoins to a certain server, the person or persons will turn me over to the police and the FBI. I wonder just what can a person do about being black mailed by some freak about something I didn't have any part in. This rather pisses me off to no extent and if I could figure out how to put these suckers in jail,I would not care how much real money it would cost me. All I can say is, let the fun begin. I want to play, but not quite the way these freaks want to play.
Moderators,I am sorry if I put something on Tman that I shouldn't have. Please delete this thread, but please send me a PM so that I can at least have a person to discuss this sorry bunch of baloney with.
So, when you see on the news that a company has been hacked and personal information has been leaked, most times we are led to believe it's credit card or financial information. Most of the time, it is personal information, including email addresses. Some shady character will purchase a bulk lot of email addresses from the hacker, and then proceed to run a scam, similar to what you've experienced.
It's a numbers game. The blackmailer will send out 10s of thousands of emails, in the hopes that a few are scared enough to respond. Replying to the blackmailer, IN ANY MANNER, alerts that blackmailer that this is a valid, in use account, and that there is a live, potential victim on the other end. This allows them to further harass you, or to sell your email for a higher price down the line with caveat that "yep, there is a live one on this one for sure".
The method is pure terrorism- scare you enough, that even though you aren't remotely guilty of the crime charged, the thought of having to defend yourself in a public setting, with something as heinous as what you have been harassed with, is enough for some to just pay up, to "make it go away". The problem is- if you paid once, you'll pay twice.
I have very high filter settings on my email server, that if I am getting any of these, they never make it to my local computer. Flagged, quarantined, discarded. I used to have a program that would boomerang them back to sender with a "Recipient not Valid" message, indicating to the harasser that my server was rejecting my email as not active.
Unless they have actually put a lock on your computer, don't worry about it. If they have locked your computer, and are holding it hostage, there are work arounds that sometimes work, sometimes don't, all depending on the level of encryption that they have used.
Rest assured- this email you got is nothing more than a variation of the phone calls you get from supposed IRS, or whatever concoction they try next. It is not personal, although they may have automated followups for a period of time, but they will eventually stop, and another will start.
Until we can trust every company that we type our personal and financial information into, our data will continue to be hacked and sold, and this garbage of receiving threats for money will continue.