Online blackmail scams are using your public information. Here’s how to spot the growing threat

More people than ever are reporting online scams. FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received more than 880,000 complaints in 2023, an increase of 10% compared to 2022.

A common form of fraud is sending emails threatening blackmail.

The emails were along the following lines: “You’re on thin ice with your surfing behavior” or “I have footage of you doing embarrassing things in your house.”

These emails can appear genuine and sometimes contain a person’s name, address and even a picture of the street they live on.

“It’s just personalized enough to make you stop… no matter how smart you are, you’re going to say, ‘Wait a minute, is this real? Is this me?'” said Dan Ackerman, editor in chief of Micro Center News.

Detecting blackmail emails

According to Ackerman, a person is not usually attacked individually. Scammers send hundreds of thousands of emails from a database, combining bits of information.

What to look for in the email:

• Urgent deadline
• Awkward wording
• General language

“There’s never any information about what you’ve been doing in your house, on your webcams, on what devices. There’s no detail like that, and that’s how you know they’re not real. They’re usually not very well written,” Ackerman said.

How to Protect Yourself

If you work for a company, follow their guidelines. Ackerman told “CBS Mornings” that companies often have protections in place, such as digital authentication, filters to block spam or requirements to contact your IT department in these scenarios.

“If you’re using a major provider like Gmail or Outlook, they have a lot of built-in filters. A lot of spam emails don’t reach you, but if they do, you can report it with a click or two on the email,” Ackerman said. “You can block it. You can report it as phishing. Report it as spam.” Loan provider

If you receive an email that may be a blackmail email:

• Do not answer
• Don’t pay any money
• Report the email

“None of these blackmail scams are legitimate,” Ackerman said. “If they had something on you, they would give you a screenshot of a shot from inside your home or some detail about yourself and your life that’s not out there.”