The Portland Police Bureau is warning the community of an apparent e-mail blackmail cyber scam that appears to be targeting the Portland area.
While it’s not a new scam, PPB has been getting a notable increase in reports this week. The scammers send an e-mail with the victim’s name in the subject field, displaying the victim’s address and phone number in the body of the e-mail. A file is often also attached containing further personally identifiable information (PII), including a Google Maps Street View picture of the victim’s residence (or what the scammer believes is the victim’s residence).
The scam claims to possess sensitive personal information on the victim (Internet browsing history) or personal and potentially embarrassing photos or videos. Unless a payment is made, the scammers claim they will send the sensitive data to the victim’s contacts.
The scammers then demand payment via cryptocurrency and attempt to overcome hesitation with a false deadline of 1 day. This is also a common tactic to prompt the victim to make a rash decision to pay before thinking it through.
This type of extortion scam is common and almost always goes no further than the original e-mail being sent.
PPB reminds our community that e-mail attachments may contain harmful files. Attachments should NOT be opened from unknown senders (and even known senders unless they’re expected), and you should not reply to the messages. Just delete them.
PPB has not received any reports of anyone paying the scammers. It is not necessary to report receiving the e-mail to PPB. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is the appropriate place to make reports through the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3): https://www.ic3.gov/
Victims inside the City of Portland who have lost funds to the scammers can make a police report on their website: https://www.portlandoregon.gov/police/cor/ and to the IC3: https://www.ic3.gov/ . Anyone outside of Portland who have lost funds should make reports to their local law enforcement agency and IC3.
The FBI offers a great deal of online resources about scams and safety: https://www.fbi.gov/how-we-can-help-you/scams-and-safety
