![\"Example](\"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/itsecurity\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2018\/07\/example-blackmail.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWe have been getting quite a few calls recently about messages trying to blackmail people.\u00a0 They allege that the recipient has been viewing pornographic sites, malware has been installed on the recipient\u2019s computer and they have compromising recordings of the recipient that will be sent to friends and colleagues.<\/p>\n
For example:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
To make the message look more authentic and try to make people believe that their system has been compromised an old password that the recipient has used is provided.\u00a0 These passwords are old passwords from compromised websites.\u00a0 These passwords have been published so are available publicly.\u00a0 The fact that the message has an old password in it does not indicate that your University account has been compromised.<\/p>\n
The video they claim to have does not exist and in nearly all cases could not possibly exist.<\/p>\n
These messages are sent in a widespread untargeted way.\u00a0 Our advice is to delete them.\u00a0 If you feel that they should be reported, please report them to Action Fraud<\/a>.<\/p>\n We have not yet seen any examples of messages which include a current University password.\u00a0 However, in some cases people are using the passwords on other sites (eg Amazon, Currys, LinnkedIN).\u00a0 If you receive a message with a password in that you are currently using anywhere you should change the password at those sites; it is also advisable to change passwords anywhere you may be using a similar password.<\/p>\n A more detailed description of the scam is available here<\/p>\n https:\/\/krebsonsecurity.com\/2018\/07\/sextortion-scam-uses-recipients-hacked-passwords\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We have been getting quite a few calls recently about messages trying to blackmail people.\u00a0 They allege that the recipient has been viewing pornographic sites, malware has been installed on the recipient\u2019s computer and they have compromising recordings of the recipient that will be sent to friends and colleagues. For example: To make the message … Continue reading “Blackmail Scam”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-malicious-email","category-examples-of-malicious-email","category-scams"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/itsecurity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/itsecurity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/itsecurity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/itsecurity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/itsecurity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/itsecurity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":492,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/itsecurity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488\/revisions\/492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/itsecurity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/itsecurity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.bham.ac.uk\/itsecurity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}