VFC Shield Members,
The Virginia Fusion Center (VFC) has recently begun receiving reports of a new online blackmail scheme impacting Virginians through their email accounts.
This scheme appears to target Virginians whose phone numbers, names, and addresses have been leaked online from past data breaches.
Virginians who are targeted by this scam will receive an email with only their name, address, and phone number in the body of the email. Additionally, enclosed as an attachment to the email will there is a PDF document, which when opened contains the following text:
“I know that visiting [Victim address] or calling [Victim phone number] would be an effective way to get in reaching you”
Further in the document, the scammer claims to have used malware to gain access to their device and that they have collected ‘secrets’ on the recipient, which they use to start a blackmail scheme. The scammer demands a sum of money, typically greater than $1,000 USD in Bitcoin, and in exchange they offer to delete all the information. To apply further pressure, the scammer warns that if the victim does not pay the sum, they will share the secrets with their family, friends, and co-workers.
As a last effort to scare the victim into complying, at the bottom of the attached document is a picture of the victim’s home which appears to be retrieved from an online mapping software such as Google Maps.
Guidance
STOP! Do not click any suspicious links from emails you do not expect to receive.
IGNORE the email and the sender. The VFC has not discovered any information which supports the credibility of the claims. Engaging with the sender will prolong their attempts to scam you.
DELETE the email.
Do not pay a scammer to keep sensitive or personal information protected. A scammer’s job is complete once they succeed in taking money from their victim.
