Has anyone else just received a blackmail demand?

[Egbert]

I just received an anonymous email which correctly disclosed my password and demanded US$2000 in bitcoin.

This clown claims to gave hijacked my webcam and videoed me pleasuring myself to a weird pornsite. They said they would send this video of me and my browser history to my email, telephone and Facebooks contacts if I do not pay in 24 hours.

I am wondering if Aplyton has been hacked because that seems the most likely explanation for somebody having my password and email.

BTW I am not replying to the blackmail demand.

[BeBMan]

I have not received such a mail, probably because I use a different password. But maybe you could share your current and future PWs so that other ppl can avoid using the same?

[Elok]

I regularly get e-mails from Nigerian princes threatening to not send me millions of dollars if I don't help them clear some paperwork. What can I say, it's a rough world.

[Egbert]

I am curious as to how some random stranger came to know my Apolyton password and my email address.

My email address is no secret as I have used the same email since 1997. My Apolyhon password was secret until I heard from this blackmailer today.

[rah]

Just tell them you won't pay until they send you a copy of the webcam. It's highly unlikely that there is any video.

[giblets]

https://haveibeenpwned.com/

[Egbert]

https://haveibeenpwned.com/

Thanks for that. I think it may have been Canva. I might have used the same password because it is easy to remember and it would not have really mattered if somebody hacked my account. My Apolyton account is of no use to anyone and nobody has posted anything under my name.

[Egbert]

Just tell them you won't pay until they send you a copy of the webcam. It's highly unlikely that there is any video.

The would need to be very clever to access my webcam because I do not have one.

They would also need to be very clever to hack my home computer because it has only been connected to the internet for about one week. I have been using library, internet cafe and work for internet access and a smartphone for a couple of years.

[-Jrabbit]

I have gotten 3 of those emails over the past few weeks, all from different addresses at outlook.com. Last one was over a week ago. Obviously a scam attempt, as I keep my webcam covered. Looked like an ancient password (less than 8 digits), but I hadn't considered that it might be Poly-related. That's my only PW match, so perhaps there's been a breach here. Interesting that the threat was to send the naughty footage to "7 randomly selected FB friends" or some such. One gave me instructions on getting bitcoin. The other two said, if you don't know how, don't waste my time, you're screwed.

Clearly an empty threat, maybe trying to promote bitcoin usage??

[-Jrabbit]

Records indicate it was indeed the same one I joined with, so I have now changed my Poly password.

[Dauphin]

Was it a password you only use on Apolyton? Then obviously yes if yes. And Poly has been down after hacks before. Bad practice to use the same password on different sites.

The above link to have I been pwned is useful.

[Egbert]

I don't think I have changed my Apolyton password since I joined and for the first few years of the internet I used the one passwordfor everything, which was just game sites and forums.

It was a few years later that I started using different passrords and changing them.

I think many of us were not security conscious in 1998 and it would not have really mattered if my slaccoung wax hacked on a gaming site.

These days I am cautious. I never give my date of birth and I do not use online banking and very rarely buy on the internet. The hackers seem to get into everything.

[Egbert]

Was it a password you only use on Apolyton? Then obviously yes if yes. And Poly has been down after hacks before. Bad practice to use the same password on different sites.

The above link to have I been pwned is useful.

It is a very old password. I only use it on Apolyton now but I may be registered on other sites with the same password from years ago.

There are sites I have not visited for years such as CivFanatics and Sierra.

[pchang]

Even back then, I used site specific passwords.

[-Jrabbit]

This was the first forum I signed up for, about 2000 or '01. I think I used the same login as my work email, as I was planning to just grab a Civ patch and never return. Left that job in 2005, but somehow I'm still here.

[Egbert]

Even back then, I used site specific passwords.

Back then, one could see everyone at work had written passwords on pieces of paper, usually the 3M Post-it notes. The papers were affixed to computers for ease of reference.

[Dauphin]

Now, they have them on e-post it notes on their screen desktops.