What is Sexual Blackmail Phishing and How to Spot It

For the final day of National #CyberSecurityMonth, we are going to be discussing sexual blackmail phishing.

What is sexual blackmail phishing?

• Fraudsters will usually email a victim and falsely claim that they have access to their electronic device and have recordings of the victim watching adult content.

They will usually email a victim with something such as …

“I am a hacker and have installed spyware on your device. I have been monitoring your activity and recording you on your device’s camera watching adult content. Send over XX amount of money and I won’t send the recording to all your contacts.”

Sometimes the emails address the victims by name and may contain further information such as a password – this is an example of spearphishing as it is more targeted to an individual. 

The information about the victim (including passwords) are often obtained through a data breach. This is where a website or app has been hacked and customer details have been stolen and leaked.

What do if you receive an email like the above:

• Firstly, it is important not to panic and never click on links or attachments contained in the email as they may contain malware (viruses) that will infect your device.
• Never engage with the email sender and forward the suspicious email to [email protected]

What to do if your password has been breached and how to secure your devices:

• If your password has been leaked in a data beach, you can never use this password again.

Check your emails on www.haveibeenpwned.com and this will show you which of your accounts have been subject to a breach.

• When changing or creating a password make sure you make it something that cannot easily be guessed and don’t use the same password for every account. Keep them separate. Password managers can be used to keep your passwords safe and to help you remember them.
• Turn on 2 Step Verification as this is a secondary security that works alongside your password. When you log into a new device, an authentication app will send a code for you to type in which ensures it is you logging into the account and no one else.
• Regularly update your devices as this will help to protect them.