Risk Level: Low
Criminals email to say they’ve hacked your computer and recorded you visiting porn sites.
If you don’t pay them, they’ll share evidence of your naughty behavior with your email contact list. To increase the pressure, scammers might include photos of your home (to make you feel like you’re being watched) and spoof your email address, so it appears that the blackmailer is contacting you via your own email account.
These are highly personalized messages that scammers use to extort you based on information they find in data breaches. Watch for weird language like: "You committed a criminal".
Don’t take the bait. Never open attachments from unsolicited emails. Stay calm. Blackmailers may demand payment within 24 hours, but urgency is a frequent scam tactic.