New email extortion scheme uses public images of your home to blackmail you into sending scammers Bitcoin
MINNEAPOLIS — A scheme is hitting email inboxes across the country that uses public images of people's homes to attempt to trick them into sending scammers thousands of dollars in Bitcoin.
Michael Morimoto received the first email a few weeks ago. It included his name, address, phone number and a PDF document. In the document, there was an image of his home in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, appearing to have been pulled from Google Maps street view.
In the threatening letter, the perpetrator claimed to have installed spyware on his devices and to have compromising images and videos they threatened to release to all his contacts if he didn't send $2,000 worth of Bitcoin.
"Your heart just kind of sinks because there's always a part of you that thinks, 'Oh my God, is this real?' Hackers have gotten so sophisticated," Morimoto said.
Morimoto has received two more since, both from different, random email addresses.
"This most recent one I got did say, 'You don't know what I'm capable in Robbinsdale!'" he said.
Cyber security expert Sean Lanterman said the perpetrator is likely overseas and does not have any compromising content.
"This email in particular is a modern take on an old scammer favorite," Lanterman said.
He said the scheme is likely a consequence of data breaches.
"You're not going to convince them that what they're doing is wrong, and really all you're doing is showing them, 'Hey, I'm a real person and I was very concerned about the email you sent me,'" he said.
If you do get what could be a blackmail email:
- Don't reply,
- Don't pay any money,
- Report the email.
Lanterman suggests checking to see if your information was compromised in a data breach, through websites like haveibeenpwned.com.
"Any device someone has they are getting email on has a feature for emails just like this one," he said. "And it is the delete key."
