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Online Scam Alert: Email Contains Your Password, Threatens to Expose Porn Habits

When an email containing one of Sally Myers’ old passwords appeared in her inbox, she thought she was hacked.

Myers said the email she received on Tuesday didn’t have the usual red flags for being spam or a scam. The sender used an Outlook account.

"It had all the right language in it. There wasn't the typical misspellings that you sometimes see in phishing emails," Myers said.

It also had a real password that Myers said she hasn’t used in a few years.

The sender claimed they accessed Myers’ web camera and recorded video of her watching online pornography, and the email threatened to release that video to Myers’ Facebook friends and email contacts unless she paid $2,250 in Bitcoin.

“We’ll name it my ‘confidentiality tip,’” the email read. “Here is what will happen if you choose this option. Your secret will remain your secret. I will delete the video immediately.”

“There was a very good storyline,” she said. “We found you, we found your identity and now we’re going to expose the porn sites you’ve been visiting.”

As Myers read on, she realized the email was in fact, a scam and she shrugged it off.

“I don’t think the kind of secrets they claim to have would have any credibility with my Facebook friends,” she said.

But she changed her current email password just to be safe.

Myers’ email address and password were probably exposed in a data breach, according to ThreeShield, a Canadian security firm.

ThreeShield said it started tracking the scam around July 5, 2018. The firm believes the data came from a breach of LinkedIn in 2012 that impacted more than 100 million users.

Hackers released the list of usernames and passwords from that hack in 2016.

Myers said the email encouraged her to think more carefully about internet security. She hopes others will too.

In addition to changing your passwords, security experts recommend using two-step verification on your accounts.

Greenwich police are also warning residents about a similar scam letter being sent through the traditional mail. It appears to target married men. The sender claims to have evidence of an affair and asks for payment in digital currency.

Greenwich police say they have received five reports in the last couple of weeks.

Police in Darien and New Canaan issued a similar warning in December 2017.

In you receive one of the emails or letters, authorities said to just ignore it.

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