RALEIGH, NC (WTVD) — A warning about an email that might arrive in your inbox claiming to catch you doing bad things and they caught it all on video.

Several ABC11 viewers shared them ABC11 Debugging Tool an email they received containing the viewer’s address, a photo of their home, and other personal information. The email begins by saying, “I suggest you read this message carefully.”

The email says: “We’re talking about something serious and I’m not playing games.” The email claims to have caught the individual doing bad things after spyware was placed on his phone, threatening to release this content to his phone contacts and social media circle. Alyssa Parker with Better Business Bureau of Eastern Carolina warns that people should not act if they receive this email as it is a scam. “If something comes at you in a threatening manner, that’s usually a red flag, not something legitimate,” Parker said.

Zulfikar Ramzan with Auraan identity theft protection company, agrees with Parker, adding that interacting with these emails could put someone in an even worse position. “I would tell the average consumer to just not get involved. They probably don’t have your data and even if you gave them money, chances are they wouldn’t stop, they’d keep coming after you. and blackmail you,” Ramzan said.

The email includes a QR code and states that to prevent something from being shared with your contacts, you can click on the Bitcoin QR code and pay $2000. Parker adds: “Anyone can create a QR code and unfortunately scammers will do that and use it in a very threatening way.”

Ramzan says scammers are getting access to information that includes pictures of people’s homes, exact addresses and personal information, sometimes including social security numbers, not only because some information is public information, but also because of mass data breaches. “We had this massive data breach of 2.7 billion B records that were stolen in the national public database. That information is now a variable goldmine, because scammers and scammers have coupled that data with what they can find about you through other sites. Ramzan said.

Ramzan also said that it is not difficult for scammers to take public information about people and combine it with dark web information to scam them. He adds: “They can be easily accessed and when you combine all of that, you put a picture of your home. from Google Maps and a few other things. You can make a pretty convincing case to the average consumer that they have been compromised. , and that’s perfect fodder for blackmail.

It is important to take steps to protect personal information. You can go to websites that post public information and request that it be removed. If you get a letter or email saying you’ve been part of a data breach and are offered free credit and identity monitoring, take advantage of it. You can also buy identity theft protection or insurance.

“Inevitably, your data will be compromised, we will become a victim, and when that happens, insurance essentially allows you to do a better job of managing and mitigating the financial impact of that loss,” Ramzan said.

If you are a victim of identity theft, it is essential that you take action immediately. File a police report and check your credit report, you can do it for free at annualcreditreport.com. If something looks suspicious, report the fraud.

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