A new email is doing the rounds trying to scam people out of thousands of pounds / dollars / Euro… whatever.
The crux of it is that the CIA are about to arrest 2000 people for downloading dodgy stuff off the internet – and guess what? You are one of them!
Oh no!
But don’t panic, thankfully the CIA Agent involved in this sting of 2000 people across the globe is as dodgy as the email themselves and they have offered to delete your records and remove your arrest warrant!
Phew!
All you have to do is send them $10,000 to a Bitcoin address – yeah because that is how law enforcement works!
So here is what to do…
Nothing!
This is absolutely a scam – honestly if the CIA were for some reason, and somehow doing a ‘worldwide’ arrest operation – you wouldn’t be getting a warning from a rogue agent looking to line their pockets. The first you would know of it is some heavily armed ninjas busting in your back door and swiftly delivering you to the nearest Police Station.
Honestly – panic not, this is a scam – the problem is that sometimes people fall for these scams.
So if you get one of these things and honestly think – ‘Oh oh – my time is up!’ You should just walk yourself into the Police Station and start the process, because hopefully some day they will be coming for you! If however you have had a look at some normal, regular, perfectly legal pornography – then don’t panic – the CIA (or your local Police) don’t care in the least about you – they certainly aren’t coming for you in a global arrest operation!
So what should you do?
- Firstly have a giggle that people are still trying this crap.
- Press ‘Delete’
- Carry on with your day.
- – If it has annoyed you, consider reporting it to your local law enforcement, or if in the UK make Action Fraud aware.
- If you have paid – contact the Police and your bank immediately!
- Go to haveibeenpwned.com to determine if your details have been hacked or are on some sort of scammers list somewhere, and if so consider changing passwords to something very secure.
