The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary is once again warning the public about email extortion scams with the goal of scaring victims into sending money.
Police say extortion letters could include a person’s full name, phone number, home address, and even a screenshot of their home from the web, to make the threat appear real.
The scammer then claims to have a video of the person visiting sexually explicit websites, and threatens to send it to everyone on the person’s contact list unless a payment is made with cryptocurrency.
Police are reminding people to never scan QR codes from an unknown source, ensure social media profiles have the highest privacy settings, limit sharing personal details on social media, be suspicious of unsolicited messages or social media requests, never send money under pressure, and to never reply to threatening messages.
RNC Const. James Cadigan says anyone with a phone or other device has likely been a target of such scams.
“It’s common to feel embarrassed when you fall into these traps,” he says. “But you know, these are very sophisticated and scripted tactics that these networks are using.”
Cadigan says the more people report such scams, the more data police can gather in their efforts to reduce the number of instances and victims.