Bitcoin Hostage Video SCAM
In what appears to be a twist on the sextortion SCAMs that have been running around for a few years, you know the one where you get an email that states that they hacked your computer, turned on your webcam, and caught you surfing porn, and “entertaining” yourself (for those of us that are adults, that would be masturbating), and if you don’t send a large amount of money in bitcoin, they will expose you and upload the video of you Uhm, “entertaining” yourself to your contacts list.
Well, this is a new twist on the same old perverse SCAM. This time the victim is forced by the scammer to film a video of themselves talking about how they invested in Bitcoin and in no time, they multiplied their investment and want you to do the same thing. Usually, it starts with a victim clicking on a link that will allow the hacker to take over their Instagram account. In order to get it back the hacker wants something in return, it often starts off with the classic “send me nudes” and when they refuse, the hacker ups the ante and asks them to make the extortion video.
In the case that Vice.com wrote about the victim also got her Venmo, email, and banking apps hacked (very likely all the same password, you do use different passwords, right?)
To avoid these types of incidents, you should first, have 2FA (Two Factor Authentication) enabled on all your accounts, you should also have different and unique passwords for every account you own. I know that sounds like a ton of work, but password vaults like Lastpass.com really make it a breeze. It is so easy that my late mother-in-law was using it and my own mother use it.
