I got an email today that looked like one of those blackmail scams where they claim to have a compromising video of you. The email had my address, which spooked me a bit, but I didn’t download anything. I opened the PDF directly in Gmail’s pop-up viewer with javascript disabled. The email’s wording got weirder, and it looked like a scam, but now I’m worried that by opening the PDF I might’ve accidentally downloaded or triggered something. I ran security checks and changed my email password, but I’m still feeling anxious. Should I be worried or do anything else?
Nope. Just delete it and forget about it.
You’re probably fine, but don’t make this a habit. If anything was downloaded, you would’ve been notified and had to run it for it to do anything. PDFs can be used to hide malicious code, but it’s usually just text to get around spam filters.
Thanks for the reassurance! I got a little scared when I opened the pop-up, but nothing got downloaded, I checked. I feel better now. I checked my spam folder and found more of these types of emails, so I won’t open them again. Appreciate the help 
You’re good. I got one of these the other day, too. They had my phone number but only partially showed it, which was strange. The whole story they gave was the usual, but here’s the kicker—I’m not even a guy! I just deleted it and moved on. It’s funny but also a bit weird. Now I’m thinking I should check on my husband just in case 
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Heads up to new users:
Since you posted here, you may get private messages from scammers offering to help you recover money for a fee. These are called recovery scammers, and you should never take advice from them privately. Always discuss advice openly here in the comments. If you get private messages like that, be cautious. You can report any recovery scammers or rule-breaking content by using the report button.
It’s a common blackmail scam. Don’t worry about your address, it’s not as private as you might think. Scammers can find it easily and use it to scare you.
This scam usually doesn’t have any real harmful payload, it’s all about scaring you into paying. So, you’re almost certainly safe. Just delete it and move on.
But going forward, don’t open attachments from unknown senders. PDFs can sometimes carry harmful files.