As these reports indicate, the scammers behind these sorts of egregious emails make various claims meant to blackmail people into wiring them crypto or cash: that they've recorded their screens when they were watching porn, accessed their webcams and obtained 'compromising' photos that they'll leak unless they pay up.
Though these kinds of scams have been going on since at least 2018, repeat data breaches in which hackers leaked both email and physical addresses seem to be contributing to their frequency and convincing nature.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) provides some expert reality checks on how these sorts of e-jerks operate. 'Scammers want you to act before you have time to think,' the FTC says.
While there have indeed been many more sophisticated scams going around in recent years with the help of AI deepfaking and clever hackers' skills, these sextortion rackets are no such beast.
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