You’ve likely come across the online sextortion scam before.
An email pops up in your inbox with the sender claiming to have obtained your indiscreet photos or videos, such as nudes or sex tapes. For a price, they offer to keep the content private. But, if you don’t give in to their blackmail, they threaten to release the photos publicly and send them to your friends and loved ones.
Despite being well known, scammers continue to utilize this model across the web, which means they are still finding success. But perhaps the scheme’s effectiveness is starting to wane as new updated sextortion scams are starting to roll out.
The latest version of this sextortion scheme has a brand new hook: proof that your spouse is cheating on you. They even use their real name in the scam.
The cheating spouse sextortion scam
One of the earliest public mentions of this new sextortion scam occurred on Reddit just last month.
Reddit user Extension-Bunch9277 posted a screenshot of an email that they received in the r/Scams subreddit. In the email (addressed to Extension-Bunch9277’s partner) the scammer uses the Reddit user’s real name in the email introduction, and then proceeds to use their spouse’s real name. The Reddit user explained that the scammer even included a second last name that they “barely used.”
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The email claims to have proof that the receiver’s spouse is cheating on them and offers to give the user full access to this supposed proof at a linked website. The Reddit user did not click the link, though a replying user posted a couple days later they they had. The sender’s email appears to be spoofing an email address attached to 3Bigs, a legitimate healthcare data company.
In the comments on the Reddit post, other Reddit users report recently receiving these emails too. Some share that they received them after only recently getting married. Users also shared that the scammer had access to not only the names they used publicly, but their maiden names too.
The Reddit post was first noticed by cybersecurity news outlet Bleeping Computer.
This is obviously a scam, an updated version of the aforementioned classic sextsextortion scheme. However, it’s not clear exactly how this particular version of the scam plays out when a user falls for it. The Reddit user who said they clicked the link reported being taken to a website’s login page. They did not continue from there. It’s possible that the scam involves a request for payment in order to receive the supposed data. It’s also possible that the links lead to a download for the target, which inevitably installs malware on their computer.
Multiple Reddit users on the thread shared that they had recently used the wedding planning platform The Knot. However, it’s unclear if there’s any connection between the service and the scam. It’s also possible that the scammers are utilizing public background check websites for this information. Just last month, Mashable reported on a massive data breach at background check company National Public Data, which leaked sensitive data for 2.9 billion people.
Just earlier this week, Mashable reported on another new sextortion scam first reported by 404 Media. This version of the scam weaponizes images of the target’s home address, likely taken off of services like Google Maps, to threaten people into paying a monetary ransom.
Mashable readers who receive these scam emails should not click on any links included in the message.
