Email claims your webcam recorded you on an adult site and threatens to send the footage to your contacts
An email claims the sender recorded you visiting an adult website through your webcam and will share the video with your contacts unless you pay Bitcoin within 48 hours. The included real password is from a data breach, not evidence of any recording.
Also known as: hello pervert email scam, sextortion Bitcoin email, I recorded you email scam, webcam blackmail email, Bitcoin blackmail email
Already happened to you? Do this in the next few minutes
- 1 Call your bank or card's fraud line right now. Use the number on the back of your card — not any number from the message or caller. Ask them to stop or reverse the payment and freeze the account.
- 2 If you paid by gift card, wire, or an app (Zelle, Venmo, Cash App): contact that company immediately and report it as fraud. Acting fast sometimes recovers the money.
- 3 Report to the FBI at ic3.gov and the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov. The sooner, the better.
What to do right now
- 1 Do not pay anything — this is a mass-produced bluff and paying marks you as a target for further extortion
- 2 Do not respond to the email — responding confirms your address is active and may increase contact
- 3 Change the password mentioned in the email immediately, and on any account where you reused it
- 4 Enable two-factor authentication on all important accounts — this prevents future misuse of any exposed credentials
- 5 If you receive an email with an AI-generated intimate image of yourself, document it and report it to local law enforcement and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) at 1-800-843-5678
- 6 Report to the FTC at https://reportfraud.ftc.gov and the FBI's IC3 at https://www.ic3.gov.
Red flags
- ⚠ An old or current password appears in the email — this comes from data breach databases, not from hacking your device
- ⚠ The email demands payment in Bitcoin, Monero, or another cryptocurrency — any form of payment demand in this context is a scam
- ⚠ A photo of your home address or a Google Street View image may appear to increase panic — this is public information, not evidence of hacking
- ⚠ The email claims Pegasus spyware or similar malware was installed — this is a lie; scammers do not individually target recipients
- ⚠ A 24–48 hour deadline is designed to pressure you into paying before you think or seek help
- ⚠ The email arrives in bulk to thousands of people simultaneously using automated mail-merge scripts
Known variants
-
Deepfake AI sextortion — perpetrators scrape public photos from social media, school sites, or LinkedIn and use AI tools to generate fake intimate images of the victim, then demand payment or threaten to send the images to the victim's contacts, family, or employer.
Last seen: 5/28/2026
Sources
- FBI — Sextortion (IC3 2025: 75,000+ reports)
- Malwarebytes — Sextortion 'I recorded you' emails reuse passwords from disposable inboxes (Mar 2026)
- Malwarebytes — Deepfake sextortion forces schools to remove student photos (May 2026)
- WAFF — 'Hello Pervert' sextortion scam resurfaces (Mar 2026)
- FTC — Scam emails demand Bitcoin, threaten blackmail
- AARP — Five of the Biggest Scams to Watch for in 2026 (sextortion)