Still another bogus blackmail email – whose effects were blocked by a half-inch of black electrical tape

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On June 24, 2024 I received a blackmailing email that had been described by Thomas Orsolya at Malwaretips on January 23, 2024 in an article titled Exposing the “I Want to Inform You About a Very Bad Situation” Email Scam. It claimed that malware had been installed on my computer to record my webcam. I should pay him $1350 in bitcoin to avoid having every number in my contact book receive shocking video recordings of me jerking off to porn videos.

 

I didn’t pay, their three-day deadline passed, and absolutely nothing happened. Why not? As I described in a previous post on January 23, 2019 titled A bogus blackmail phishing email the lens for the webcam on my 27” iMac was always covered by a piece of black electrical tape. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I use a Lenovo laptop on Windows for my online zoom activities. And, as shown above, I always slide the shutter to the left to physically block its webcam. The lens opening instead just displays a red circle. That’s all it takes to defeat the scam.