Scam Help

[playwrestler]

What a strange new world internet computing is. I always delete my junk mail after checking that nothing needed hasn't been accidentally sent there. Today in the "junk" section a heading caught my eye... and while I didn't move it to my inbox or click on any attachment, I peeked at it. A message sent by someone named "Tasha Buck" said that I had visited a child pornography site (false and definitely not something I'm interested in) and that if I didn't send her 0.1 bitcoins immediately within 24 hours that she would send my details to the police and plaster this all over facebook etc etc. I know that this is a scam, but it bothers me that she has my email etc. Has this particular scam happened to anyone here? I'm off on vacation for the rest of July so my instinct is to just let this go... But I'm wondering when I return if this is still happening is there some agency I should contact that deals with these sorts of scams? I can see how this might scare certain people into sending money.

[mike carey]

I've received all sorts of scam e-mails but not that one. It's likely that the sender has access to some list of addresses and knows nothing about their owners or even if they are valid addresses, and that they are sending the same message to hundreds or thousands of them. It only takes one to respond and pay to make the effort worthwhile.

[Mo Mason]

I had a virus once that locked up my computer. There was suddenly a bright red screen and a voice claiming to be from some government agency (department of homeland security or something big like that) warning me that my computer was now unaccessable until agents arrived to confiscate it. The voice was loud and was saying that I'd viewed illegal material which may have included child pornography. It scared the hell out of me, plus it happened at work so it was really embarrassing. Luckily one of my co-workers knew about it being a virus and told me how to remove it.

[+ sam.fitzpatrick]

What a strange new world internet computing is. I always delete my junk mail after checking that nothing needed hasn't been accidentally sent there. Today in the "junk" section a heading caught my eye... and while I didn't move it to my inbox or click on any attachment, I peeked at it. A message sent by someone named "Tasha Buck" said that I had visited a child pornography site (false and definitely not something I'm interested in) and that if I didn't send her 0.1 bitcoins immediately within 24 hours that she would send my details to the police and plaster this all over facebook etc etc. I know that this is a scam, but it bothers me that she has my email etc. Has this particular scam happened to anyone here? I'm off on vacation for the rest of July so my instinct is to just let this go... But I'm wondering when I return if this is still happening is there some agency I should contact that deals with these sorts of scams? I can see how this might scare certain people into sending money.

 

She may not have your email. These scamsters have nothing to lose by just randomly trying names and numbers to send you an email. If you don't reply, they do not know that it is a valid address.