At the moment, we’re seeing all kinds of sextortion emails. The scam is cheap to run, easy to automate, and apparently profitable enough that cybercriminals keep using it. Some criminals put more effort into their messages than others.
Sextortion emails are messages claiming that scammers recorded you through your webcam while you watched pornography and now demand payment. They have been around for years and keep evolving with small changes in wording and fake technical detail.
What hasn’t changed is the basic truth: there is no malware, no recording, and no credible evidence behind the threat. Despite seeing countless versions of these emails over the years, I’ve yet to encounter one that was backed up by the evidence the sender claimed to have.
Below, we’ll walk through the email line by line, interrupting the scammer’s story with commentary that explains where the claims come from and why they don’t stand up to scrutiny.
“Hi there!
