Scammers often rely on fear to steal your hard-earned money. No matter the scam, whether it’s a Microsoft call scam or government impersonation, they all attempt to scare you by claiming that something is seriously wrong with you or your devices and that only they can fix it. The latest sextortion scams targeting many in the U.S. are no exception.

These bad actors contact you via email, claiming to have compromising photos or videos of you in private situations, and demand money to delete them. What’s new is that these scammers now include images of your home to make their threats seem more convincing.

I’ve received emails from many people sharing how these scammers targeted them. Below is a breakdown of the evolved sextortion scam and tips on how to stay protected.

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How the scam works

It starts when you get an email from a scammer claiming they recorded you while you were watching adult content. They use your name and include a photo of your house or a nearby street to make it seem real.

The scammer claims to have installed a spyware called “Pegasus” on your phone and has access to everything you watch. Pegasus is a spyware developed by NSO Group, a company that sells it only to government agencies and law enforcement. 

It’s super expensive and highly unlikely that a random scammer would have access to it. Even if they did, stalking people watching adult content wouldn’t be worth their time. Plus, if they have installed the spyware on your phone, they won’t need to ask you to send money.

Once the scammer has you scared, they offer to delete the so-called footage and pretend you never existed if you pay them. They usually include a QR code for a cryptocurrency wallet and ask for Bitcoin as payment. One email I saw from a victim mentioned a ransom of about $2,000.

I’ve attached a portion of the email the victim got below. I’ve blurred out any personal info to protect their identity, but you can still check out the text.

Actual sextortion scam email (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

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How do scammers know your location?

The image of your home might make the scam look real, but it’s probably just a trick. One possible reason they have that info is a data breach. Your address might have been leaked in a breach and ended up on the dark web. Scammers could have gotten hold of it and used Google Maps to find a picture of your house. Another reason could be that you put up a listing for something online, like a rental or sale ad. If you’ve shared your address publicly in an online listing, scammers might have found it that way.

Google Maps vehicle that captures images (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

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Protect your privacy: Blur your house on Google Maps

Google Maps is how they get access to images of your house. But you can blur your house on the platform and prevent scammers from fearmongering. You’ll need to do this from a computer since the blurring feature isn’t available in the Google Maps app on iOS or Android. Follow these steps to learn how:

• Go to maps.google.com and type your home address into the search bar at the top-right.
• Click on the photo of your house that shows up.
• You’ll see a Street View image of your place. Click Report a Problem in the bottom-right corner.
• Adjust the view so that your home and anything else you want to blur is inside the red and black box using your mouse.
• Select the option to blur your home from the choices given.
• Hit Submit, and Google will review your request and blur your house if they think it’s necessary.

Google Map-blurred home (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

4 additional steps to stay protected from sextortion scams

Here are four additional steps you can take to stay protected from sextortion scams:

1) Be cautious with personal information: Avoid sharing personal information like your address, phone number or other sensitive details online. Be mindful of what you post on social media and other platforms.

2) Watch out for red flags: Scammers are mostly bluffing. For instance, the Pegasus software they claim to be using is a lie. Stay informed about common scams and how they work. Knowing what to look out for can help you recognize and avoid potential threats.

3) Change passwords: If the email includes a password, make sure you are not using it anymore, and if you are, change it as soon as possible. ON ANOTHER DEVICE (i.e., your laptop or desktop), you should change your passwords for all your important accounts, such as email, banking, social media, etc.

You should do this on another device to ensure that if the scammer actually has access to your device, they aren’t recording you setting up your new password. And you should also use strong and unique passwords that are hard to guess or crack. You can also use a password manager to generate and store your passwords securely. Changing passwords should be a part of your general cybersecurity hygiene, even if you’re not affected by a data breach.

4) Use personal data removal services: Consider investing in personal data removal services that specialize in continuously monitoring and removing your personal information from various online databases and websites. 

I mentioned above that scammers most likely got access to your address through a data breach. A data removal service can help you remove all this personal information from the internet. Check out my top picks for data removal services here.

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Kurt’s key takeaway

Scammers use fear and deception to trick you into giving up your hard-earned money. By understanding how these sextortion scams work and knowing what to look out for, you can better protect yourself from falling victim. Remember, most of these scammers are bluffing and rely on exploiting your fears. Keep your personal information secure, be cautious about what you share online and always verify the legitimacy of any threatening messages you receive. If you encounter a scam, report it to the appropriate authorities and take steps to secure your accounts and devices. 

Have you ever encountered a similar scam or any other type of scam? How did you handle it? Let us know by writing us at Cyberguy.com/Contact.

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Last week, The Flappy Bird Foundation announced a game called Flappy Bird. But while the group has been framing it as the triumphant return of a classic mobile game, Flappy Bird’s original developer, Dong Nguyen isn’t calling it a comeback — in fact, he says he’s not involved at all.

Nguyen posted as much on X (for the first time since 2017!) this morning, saying he didn’t “sell anything.” The Flappy Bird Foundation wrote in the announcement it shared with press last week that it had “acquired the rights from Gametech Holdings, LLC,” which had secured the trademark from Nguyen, but it doesn’t appear as though that was the result of any dealings between him and the group.

The Flappy Bird Foundation didn’t say in its announcement that Nguyen was involved, but it certainly leans on nostalgia as it promotes the game. More than half of the game’s first trailer lingers on the game’s rise in popularity and the disappointment of its abrupt disappearance in 2013, before declaring that “In 2024, Flappy Bird will fly again.”

As for the crypto piece of this puzzle, cybersecurity researcher Varun Biniwale pointed out hidden pages from the Flappy Bird website that indicate there may be such a component in the game’s launch. One page that seems to have been removed (and is archived here) said Flappy Bird will “fly higher than ever on Solana as it soars into web 3.0,” and invited players to “build, create, play and stake to own.”

For now, Flappy Bird is listed as coming soon for iOS and Android. Just don’t expect it to be the Flappy Bird you knew — that, it seems, remains as gone as ever.

Instagram might roll out a way to share comments on other Instagram posts to Threads, according to Alessandro Paluzzi, who often reverse engineers Meta’s social media apps to find coming features.

Paluzzi shared an image showing that when commenting on an Instagram post, there could be a new dropdown menu that lets users choose to share the comment only to Instagram or “also share on Threads.”

Meta has made a few moves to integrate Threads with its other platforms in the past, such as showing Threads posts on Instagram or Facebook (and, later, letting users opt out of that). The Twitter-like short-posting social network also lacks DMs of its own, but users can still receive or send messages through Instagram.

The bigger effort, of course, is Meta’s slow work integrating Threads with the fediverse. The company’s moves to do so include being able to actually see replies from the fediverse under their posts, and, more recently, others’ posts.