Is extortion type email spam taken more seriously than other types?

[Stephen Tashiro]

Do "the authorities" take extorion type email spam seriously - or do they treat (or ignore) it as ordinary spam? There are extortion type spam emails that say "I have pictures of you..." or "I took over you computer and I know that you ...", Send me some bitcoins so I won't tell.

I haven't received any robo-phone calls of the extortion type, but perhaps it's only a matter of time.


Hearing that I inherited a million dollars from the ex-premier of Zwobolliland is so much more fun than being blackmailed.

[John C Cox]

Forward to the authorities as per usual....

Likely they get treated the same... Which means generally nothing happens except for the occasional public service announcement that it's a scam.. Don't reply... Etc...

The thing you have to remember is that it's a numbers game.... And novelty can perhaps increase the odds for a short time... Initially the number of takers is "higher" because *gasp* what if it's true? What if they did find out? But then if the numbers are a bit higher - everybody jumps in and you get 20-million of them a day.... And then like making free money on real estate - as a scam wanes - the number of takers goes way way down.... And you gotta find a new way to scam folks because getting a real job is just too hard....

If you ever get the chance - google up James Gleick's videos of his replies to email scammers.... Brilliant!!

[Doug Garson]

I think you meant to say James Veitch, if not check him out too.

[Wade Lippman]

I got my first extortion email last week! He obtained my personal information when I visited a porn site and if I didn't....
Don't know the rest because I don't open them. NEVER open them.
Gmail was good enough to send it to my spam folder.
I can't imagine any authorities need another example, or will do anything in any event.

I think emails should cost $0.001 each. I realize spammers use hacked sites, but when you get your first bill for $100,000 for emails "you" sent out, you will probably be incentivized to fix it. That should slow them down.

[Bruce Wrenn]

I've been getting the one that says "Your AT&T account will be deactivated today...." Have no idea what the rest says, as I delete it. This has been going on for over 6 months. You would think by now they would have figured out that I'm not going to bite.

[Jim Becker]

Bruce, "they" have no idea you exist personally. They just have an email address that was scarfed from somewhere...these are all mass mailings with the hope that "someone" will bite, which sadly, some folks do.

[Mike Nolan]

I agree with the idea of having a small charge for emails. It would reduce but not eliminate criminal emails and cause ads to be much more targeted.

[Greg Parrish]

I agree with the idea of having a small charge for emails. It would reduce but not eliminate criminal emails and cause ads to be much more targeted.

Then they would just hack your email account to run them through the way they spoof peoples caller ID info. Funny when you get a telemarketer call from your own home number to you on your cell phone.

[Brian Elfert]

Since the email is just another scam the authorities aren't going to do anything. The scammers claim to have photos or whatever in hopes that you pay them.

In all reality the scammer has no photos and just wants your money.

[Mike Kreinhop]

My uncle received a similar email stating a list of porn sites he apparently viewed would be sent to all of the people in his contact list if he didn't send $1,900 in bitcoin to the scammer. As an 83-year old widower, he was tempted to reply to the scammer that he was ecstatic that rumors of his prowess would be sent to everyone for free.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hearing that I inherited a million dollars from the ex-premier of Zwobolliland is so much more fun than being blackmailed.

It sure is for the good folks over at 419eater.com ! If you've never heard of them, I highly recommend spending a few fun filled hours going through the trophy room. I laughed so hard doing that one morning I woke up the whole house.

[Lee DeRaud]

You mean that one isn't true?!?
Nigerian.jpg

[Brian Henderson]

Heck if I know, I don't read unexpected e-mails, any more than I accept unexpected phone calls. Anything from someone I don't know or a company I don't already do business with gets deleted unread.

[Dan Rude]

I work in IT Security for the Gov. We can only react to work related spam emails (the government email address), because people do click on them. For that reason we shut down Private email. Best response is add to spam and empty it. I am also getting more junk calls on my government cell. This is on top of my personnel accounts. It is too the point, I am creating some new emails to use. Dan