Respond to Sextortion
The email claims a hacker recorded you through your webcam and will send the video to all your contacts unless you pay in Bitcoin within 48 hours. Your stomach drops — until you learn these emails go out by the millions, almost always with zero actual footage. Panic is the product; here is the rational response.
TL;DR / Quick Fix
Quick fix: do not pay and do not reply — sextortion emails are mass-sent bluffs, and paying marks you as a payer. Block the sender and report the message. If real intimate content of you exists, save the evidence and contact police instead of negotiating.
Follow these steps
- Do not pay. Do not reply. Payment confirms you are a profitable target and the demands escalate. Silence starves the scammer — they move on to the next million addresses.
- Recognize the bluff pattern. Vague claims, a password from an old breach as 'proof,' a Bitcoin address, a countdown timer. Real attackers with real footage do not operate this way — see the sextortion email breakdown for the anatomy.
- Block and report. Mark the message as phishing in your email app and block the sender. Reporting helps providers kill the campaign faster.
- Change the exposed password. If the email quotes a real old password, that came from a past data breach. Change it everywhere you reused it and enable two-factor authentication.
- Cover the webcam for peace of mind. A five-cent slider ends the 'are they watching' anxiety permanently. Cheap, physical, unbeatable.
- Escalate only if content is real. If genuine intimate material of you exists and someone threatens to share it, save everything and contact police — that is a crime, and catfishing networks sometimes overlap with it.
What NOT to do
- Do not pay the Bitcoin demand. Payment never ends it — it flags you as someone who pays, inviting round two.
- Do not reply to negotiate or plead. Any response confirms your address is live and monitored.
- Do not delete the email in panic before reporting. Report it as phishing first — then delete it.
- Do not assume they have contacts' emails. The 'I'll email everyone you know' threat relies on you imagining the worst — mass senders rarely have your address book.
Frequently asked questions
What if the email includes a real password of mine?
It came from an old data breach, not from hacking you now. Change that password everywhere and move on.
Should I go to the police over a bluff email?
For a generic mass email, reporting as phishing is enough. If you are being personally targeted with real material, yes — go to police.
Can they really see through my webcam?
Mass sextortion emails cannot. Real webcam malware exists but announces itself differently — keep your system updated and camera covered.
What to read next
- Sextortion Email?
- Spot Catfishing