Sextortion Scammers Try and Hit “Close to Home”

We stay in a world the place, regardless of the sharing of data on-line, we really feel like these interactions won’t ever attain house.  However a brand new rip-off – coated on WTSP Tampa Bay’s Channel 10 information – demonstrates how scammers will use private particulars to throw the sufferer right into a panic when extorting them for cash.

Based on information reporter Nick Volturo, he acquired an e mail offering private particulars and an image of his house (seemingly from Google Avenue View), asking for $1950:

Sextortion Image

Supply: WTSP Tampa Bay Channel 10 Information

However this story additionally fell near KnowBe4’s house in Clearwater, FL.  Within the story, Erich Kron, Safety Consciousness Advocate at KnowBe4 was interviewed in regards to the rip-off. He talked about how scams like these are intent on preying on the sufferer’s feelings, offering sufficient particulars to scare them into paying to “make it go away.”

As with each phishing assault, correct training of what these emails seem like and what to do with them (on this case, merely delete it) is crucial to reduce the chance of changing into a sufferer.  Organizations can guarantee their workers are educated to scale back the chance of a profitable rip-off or worse – the beginnings of a cyber assault – by means of new-school safety consciousness coaching.

KnowBe4 empowers your workforce to make smarter safety choices daily. Over 70,000 organizations worldwide belief the KnowBe4 platform to strengthen their safety tradition and scale back human threat.

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