{"id":976,"date":"2020-04-24T15:53:14","date_gmt":"2020-04-24T19:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/?p=976"},"modified":"2020-04-27T11:55:59","modified_gmt":"2020-04-27T15:55:59","slug":"extortion-email-scams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/extortion-email-scams\/","title":{"rendered":"Extortion Email Scams"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>On April 27, 2020, our office issued a scam alert to warn about an <strong>email extortion scam<\/strong> that has been contacting Vermonters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The email threatens exposure of compromising home video and pictures, unless you pay, usually in Bitcoin. The email claims you have been hacked and may reference a current or former password you may have used. The sender claims that they have access to your computer and webcam and threatens to release embarrassing photos and video unless you send them money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These emails are scams. If you receive one of these e-mails, <strong>DO NOT send money<\/strong>. Do not click on any links or attachments. If you find that your current password is listed in the email, change your passwords from another computer and run virus scans. To learn even more about this scam, scroll to the \u201cSextortion Scam\u201d section of our <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/stay-safe-online-this-valentines-day\/\">online relationship scams blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/files\/2020\/04\/Copy-of-Email-Sextortion-Scam-Alert-1024x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-978\" width=\"430\" height=\"434\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"color:#e32c1b\" class=\"has-text-color has-text-align-center\"><strong> You can help stop these scams from hurting your community by sharing this information with people you know.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Call us at 800-649-2424 if you have questions, concerns, or need help determining if you have been a victim of a scam.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Report these scams to the FBI&#8217;s Internet Crime Center at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ic3.gov\/default.aspx\">ic3.gov<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">For more information about how to protect yourself from email phishing scams, visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.consumer.ftc.gov\/articles\/how-recognize-and-avoid-phishing-scams\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Federal Trade Commission's website (opens in a new tab)\">Federal Trade Commission&#8217;s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On April 27, 2020, our office issued a scam alert to warn about an email extortion scam that has been contacting Vermonters. The email threatens exposure of compromising home video and pictures, unless you pay, usually in Bitcoin. The email claims you have been hacked and may reference a current or former password you may&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/extortion-email-scams\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Extortion Email Scams<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4480,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[493789,639376,481474,139,639216,20091,607,484616,625569],"class_list":["post-976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-alert","tag-bitcoin","tag-consumer","tag-email","tag-extortion","tag-password","tag-phishing","tag-scam","tag-sextortion","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4480"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=976"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":981,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976\/revisions\/981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}