A well-known scam from cybercrime services seems to be making a comeback: webcam blackmail. This is a bluff on the part of the scammers, who try to extract money from you by blackmailing you.
Have you visited a porn site recently? Beware if you receive an email shortly after claiming that your webcam has been hacked.
Webcam blackmail is indeed making a strong comeback this fall, after a peak in the summer, says in a tweet spotted by BFM Jérôme Notin, Managing Director of the Public Interest Group Action against Cybermalevolence.
How does this scam work?
The “hacker” informs you, usually by email, that he has “taken control of the victim’s computer following the consultation of a pornographic site”.
He tells you he has “obtained compromising videos of the victim made with his webcam. He threatens to publish them to his personal contacts, or even professional ones, if the victim does not pay him a ransom”, explains the governmental site of the cybermalevolence.
In 2021, a pensioner told journalists about Complementary Investigation on France 2 having been the victim of this scam, two years earlier. In an email received from the criminal, the victim had been informed that this hacker had set up a virus on an adult site allowing them to get their hands on their webcam.
“I noticed that you have very particular tastes in pornography. Well, I think 500 euros is a fair price for our little secret”, he wrote to him, for example, before threatening to broadcast the images to all his contacts.
How to react if you are the victim of blackmail?
If you receive a message of this nature, the government’s cyber-malware site recommends that you do not respond to the email and do not pay the demanded ransom. You can take screenshots and save messageswhich can then be used as evidence by the authorities.
To be sure not to see your webcam hacked, it is also recommended to cover it with a cover or a piece of adhesive when you are not using it. Note that extortion attempts of this type can make the criminal incur a fine of up to 100,000 euros and 7 years of imprisonment.