Putnam Sheriff Warns Of Porn Scam

Putnam County Sheriff Robert L. Langley reports that, since the work from home restrictions began during the new coronavirus pandemic, law enforcement has seen an increase in computer scams. One such scam involves an email from a suspect to a victim claiming that the suspect is in possession of recorded web-cam video footage of the victim watching pornography.

The suspect implies that he has malware/remote access to the victim’s computer to record video. The suspect then threatens to share the alleged footage with the victim’s Facebook friends and family unless the victim pays the suspect in the form of bitcoin payment.

In the scam, the suspect often provides a valid, yet often old, password to "prove" that they had access to the victim’s computer.

However, Langley explains, the password was likely obtained from an old data breach already on the dark web.

The sheriff advises members of the community that if you receive such an email you:

1. Do NOT send any payment.
2. Do NOT click any links provided in the email.
3. Change the password for all services/websites that use the password mentioned by the suspect.
4. File a report with the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center.

You can file such a compliant at WWW.IC3.gov.

If you are a victim of a scam that resulted in financial loss you can report the crime to the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office at (845) 225-4300.