Bitcoins were one of the most sought-after commodity a few years ago. However, we have seen the rise and fall of Bitcoin in less than a decade or so. It must be said that Bitcoin had a meteoric rise to the top and an even bigger fall in the industry. All is still not lost though as Bitcoin has managed to stay alive in the market. As of today, Bitcoin is trading at just below the US $4000 mark. However, we have seen the price of Bitcoin go up to $20000 mark at its peak.
Even though Bitcoin has had a massive fall, it is still a great way to invest in. Therefore, people are still buying Bitcoins and looking at them as a long-term investment option. Talking about Bitcoins, a new scamming technique has come to our notice related to Bitcoins. This scam is also known as Bitcoin Blackmail Email.
Check Email Layout Pattern
The blackmail emails layout looks common. You will see a similar pattern in all the blackmailing emails with the same content. This is one of the signals for finding a fishy email.
Elaborating on this scam, there has been a recent increase in the number of spam emails. These emails will try to threaten you which is basically called Blackmailing. This email will contain information which is somewhat relevant to you and tell you to pay money or else your data will be erased. For proof, these emails will also include your username and password which instills fear in you that they really have your data.
But we must tell you that the first thing you should do is not follow anything that the email sender says. This is because they do not have any information regarding you. Even if the information they provide is true, chances are that they have found it from common databases which are hacked. Just change the password for that account and do not respond to that email.
These scammers will claim that they have kept a track on you from the last few days. So much so that they are tracking your webcam as well. These scammers will tell you that you have done some internet browsing which is dirty. If they reveal your browsing history, you can be in danger. Therefore, you get frightened and get ready to pay them what they demand. In reality, they do not have any information regarding you or your computer.
Here is the example mail we received recently from a scammer.
The next step
Most important, they will ask you to pay the money in Bitcoin. This is because Bitcoin cannot be traced so you will not find out where you sent your money. Basically, all you need to do is just change your account password into something which is extremely difficult to guess.
Apart from that, delete that scam email immediately and do not worry that they will take any action if the time limit expires. As we mentioned earlier, the data can be easily found from hacked databases which have been done earlier. Most probably, they are not hackers but just found your data online.
Also, try and use a password manager to store your passwords if possible and auto-generate your passwords everywhere which are the most difficult to crack. Moreover, check if your data is available online from a website called haveibeenpwned. It will lets you know whether your email is effected or not.