I’ve been noticing more people getting worried lately about these scam emails with swapped headers, especially to their Outlook or Hotmail accounts. They think they’ve been hacked, but it’s just a spam email that looks like it came from their own address. It usually says something like, ‘I’ve hacked you, I know your secrets… pay me in litecoin.’ I’m not an IT expert, but I’ve had about a dozen friends and family reach out to me in the last couple of weeks asking about this. I figured I’d post here to see if anyone else has been dealing with these. Honestly, it’s frustrating that the spam filters on Outlook aren’t catching them. If someone you know is confused, just show them their sent box and explain that this is a known issue with how email headers work.
Heads up… This message is being shared with anyone new posting about scams here. Just a heads-up that some scammers may start messaging you privately claiming they can help recover your money. These are called recovery scammers, and they charge for fake services. Don’t take advice in private messages. Only follow advice in open comments here so the community can keep track of things and help out if needed. Remember, we also have rules in this forum, so please no personal info or name-calling, and keep it civil. You can read the full rules on the sidebar or click the link for details. If you see any rule-breakers, report them by using the ‘report’ button. We look at all reports. Also, if you spot any recovery scammers in the comments, please warn others!
It’s pretty clear that if you get one of those ‘I’ve been watching you’ emails, it’s a scam. No need to worry about it.
These spam waves come and go. I’ve seen ones where they try to scare people with Google Street View images of their homes. It’s just a tactic to try and intimidate you. Then, who knows what kind of scam they’ll try next.
Yeah, there’s even an AutoMod for this scam. It happens all the time on this forum and pretty much every scam forum. The scammers scrape emails or get them from a data breach, and then send these emails out in huge batches. I’ve been getting these kinds of emails since around 2010-2011, so it’s nothing new.
@EdwardGenesis
Hi /u/sarcasmismygame, AutoModerator has jumped in to explain the blackmail email scam. These emails usually say something like they’ve installed malware after visiting adult sites, claim to have a video of you doing something embarrassing, and then threaten to release it unless you pay up. It’s all a scam, and there’s no real video. If they really had something, they’d show it. Here’s some more info: news articles about this scam and another article. There’s also a variant where they make death threats and say they’ve been hired to kill you unless you pay them. These are all just spam emails, so don’t worry about them.
That ‘hello pervert’ email is still going around, isn’t it? Some things just don’t go away.
It’s really easy for scammers to change the ‘From’ address on an email, making it look like it came from someone else. Even though modern email servers do some checks to verify the sender, don’t trust them completely. The ‘From’ address is just like the return address on an envelope. Imagine getting a letter that looks like it came from your own house but you didn’t send it. That’s the same thing with emails. So, if you see an email with a familiar address, don’t assume it’s safe.