I received a troubling email that threatens blackmail. Either I send them $2000 in bitcoin or else they will make public everything they 'hacked' from my computer. I know it's a scam because some of my private information they want to release just doesn't exist. But they do have my password (an old one), and said they have all my FB contacts, phone contacts, etc. The sender's email is: Harriott Parzen. I would like to see this person arrested. Does Norton work with law enforcement to track down and prosecute those who threaten blackmail/ransom schemes such as this?
The troubling thing is they knew one of my passwords. How did they know that is the question. It has to mean I have some vulnerability someplace.
As I explained earlier, the passwords are acquired from hacks of corporate databases where your password to that company's website, along with everyone else's, was insecurely stored. Those hackers then sell these stolen passwords to other criminals on the dark web. The bad guys who sent you the email do not have access to your system and never will. They could theoretically sign in to your account that you used the password for, but that is very unlikely as well, because once a database is hacked the company will almost certainly require all customers to change their passwords. That is why the password in the email is almost always an old one that is no longer used.
I have the same email. The troubling thing is they knew one of my passwords. How did they know that is the question. It has to mean I have some vulnerability someplace. Any help would be appreciated.
These extortion attempts usually include a password in an effort to convince you that the scammers do have access to your computer and have therefore been able to harvest your information. In reality, the password was obtained not from you, but from a company's breached database somewhere, as we so often hear about. That is why these passwords are often out of date. But it can be scary when they threaten to expose things you'd rather keep private and produce one of your passwords as "evidence" of your vulnerability. When this type of scam first appeared a few years back, before it became well documented, there were a lot of freaked out victims.
It's the first time I've seen this type of scam, so I didn't think it was that common. Thanks for pointing out its ubiquity. I'll delete and ignore the email in question. However, I still think these perps should be prosecuted, and I'm sure there are easy ways to do that. Wherever there is a technology-created problem, there is a technology-based solution.
No. Norton does not work with law enforcement. That would be a full time job with them trying to deal with every law enforcement department in the world.
You should be contacting your local law enforcement and forwarding it to their fraud section.