Email SCAM: Same Principle of Threats Used to Steal Your Money
The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office continues to receive reports of scammers trying to lie, intimidate, trick, and threaten people into giving up their hard-earned money or personal information, leaving them vulnerable to identity theft.
They “IRS Scam”, “Grandparents Scam”, “You have warrants” Scam and the “You’ve won a huge amount of money but you have to send us a small fee to get it” Scam are still active in our area but a twist using email has recently been reported.
In this email scam, a potential victim receives an email stating the sender has evidence of pornography crimes committed by the victim. This could be anything, such as your email address or home internet service has been used to download, view, send or somehow commit some type of crime involving pornography. The scammer demands a $7,000 payment to not disclose this “evidence” to law enforcement. This or any other threat to cause fear and demand money to keep you out of trouble is a SCAM! Do not fall victim to these predators and lose your hard-earned money.
Some of these emails also contain “links” to click, such as “reset your password by clicking here”. Some are more subtle and play off your curiosity, asking you if you’ve seen what’s been written about you or “Is this you…?”
These are “phishing emails” and are scammers using fraudulent emails designed to trick you into providing personal information (social security numbers, banking/account information, computer logon/password information) or entice you into click a bogus link to load malware or potentially gain access to your computer/personal information.
For more information about protecting your privacy, identity and online security, including how to report phishing emails to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), along with other scams and consumer information, go to the FTC website https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/ or the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at https://www.ic3.gov/.