Email Extortion Attacks

The Duke IT Security Offices have been dealing with an increase of email extortion attacks targeting the Duke community.

This is a common scam in which the attacker fakes the sending email address to make it look like the email came from you. They then claim to have accessed your computer and recorded videos of you viewing adult content. Their goal is to scare you into sending Bitcoin to the address provided in the email to prevent these alleged videos from being sent to your contacts. If you receive one of these emails then feel free to report and then delete the message.

More information about these types of attacks can be found in our Email Security Guide. If you have any questions or would like to report any of these messages then please email us security@duke.edu.

Image