Report a Crime

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@robertbench wrote:

I have received two blackmail threats via email recently. Does xFinity investigate or take any action against such crimes?

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Contact your local police department ASAP.

I too recently received an email blackmailing me for bit coins they said they had my password and video of me. The video is suspect as I have no camera attached to my desktop. The password was only part of a password I have used in the past. I sent a copy to Comcast. I did not respond but put it in my spam folder. Let me know if there is anything we can do.  Ron

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@bamaron wrote:

I too recently received an email blackmailing me for bit coins they said they had my password and video of me. The video is suspect as I have no camera attached to my desktop. The password was only part of a password I have used in the past. I sent a copy to Comcast. I did not respond but put it in my spam folder. Let me know if there is anything we can do.  Ron

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You can report them if you want.  I just basically ignore them.

As a precaution, however, make sure your computer is "tight".  Scan it often with your AV software.  I also have the free versions o SUPERAntiSpyware and Malwarebytes and I scan often.

That's a very common scam, don't worry, they don't have a video of you.  They include a password that they obtained from one of various breaches over the years which they purchase in bulk in order to make you think it is legit.  Luckily the passwords are usually very old and not in use anymore, but it doesn't appear they attempt to use them to log in to anything anyway (though you never know).

Nothing to worry about however it does serve as a good reminder to change that password if you are still using it anywhere (especially if it is associated with your email address that you received the ransom at).  Good idea to change your passwords pereodically anyway and not use the same one at different places.

Nothing to do with comcast, every ISP and email domain will get these and it is nearly impossible to block them all as the scammers change the way they send them every day.

You can of course report it to your police, the FTC, etc etc, but let's be honest, none of them are going to do anything with it.  There are millions of these going out every day and they mostly originate from outside the US ultimately.  You'll just be wasting your time and the police's, and whatever piece of paper that gets filed away with your report on it (if they even bother).

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@bamaron wrote:

I too recently received an email blackmailing me for bit coins they said they had my password and video of me. The video is suspect as I have no camera attached to my desktop. The password was only part of a password I have used in the past. I sent a copy to Comcast. I did not respond but put it in my spam folder. Let me know if there is anything we can do.  Ron

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I am glad (in a sad kind of way) that I am not the only target of these cretins. yarntrails, your handle says that you are a "contributor." 

"Nothing to do with comcast" - "impossible to block them." Is that your take as well on Phishing email reports where I've been directed to send the Source to Abuse@Comcast.net? Then why was I asked by Comcast to do this?

Yes, they are changing the fake sender name each time but they are always coming from outlook.com. What is bothering me now is the volume: They are showing up just about every other day now. Do I need to change my email address to stop this? Marking them as Spam is not working.

Again, you are doing a great job monitoring this forum. How about monitoring these scammers, all using outlook.com. I think Comcast has a responsibility in investigating/tracing/blocking this, since it is their platform the scammers are using. They certainly can afford to hire someone to track these perverts. 

I have been getting these email every other day. It is beyond creepy because they identify my wifi identifier. Same crazy email, different sender, same bitcoin scem ( as if I know how to get bitcoin). Attempted to get Xfinity involved. Wait times are over 60 minutes. Seems ok to continue to avoid and toss.

I don't work for Comcast so I  have nothing to do with monitoring the emails, but I have administered email servers and domains so just giving some insight.  You can certainly keep forwarding them to abuse (make sure you follow the directions to forward it as an attachment so they have the full email headers).  But don't expect a response.  They use these submissions to update their filtering and algorithms.  They obviously can't block all of outlook.com, so they have to look at the content of the messages to try and filter that way.  But the scammers know this and change the content regularly to circumvent that type of filtering. 

In most cases the mail isn't actually coming from outlook.com (Microsoft's) servers, they just use that as a spoofed sender email address.  So comcast can also block the IP addresses that are sending this spam (typically a VPN), but if you read other threads in here, you'll see that often results in them blocking legitimate user emails and the IP block has to be removed.  Sometimes there is something in the email header they can use to filter on (that's why you forward as an attachment) but again, the scammers know this and change it up.

One could argue that they should be able to come up with better algorithms, and that is somewhat true, it takes a lot of work and they have to be careful not to be too broad and start blocking legitimate emails.  It is a fine line to walk, but there is definitely room for improvement (for all the major email providers and corporations, not just Comcast).

For a while I got them frequently, then it died off.  I think the scammers mostly try a set of addresses a certain number of times then move on to another set.  But there are many scammers working off the same list of emails so you can get quite a few before it thins out.  Even if you move to a new email address or provider, at some point they'll probably get ahold of that address through some new data breach.

One thing that I and many others do is have one email that is used mostly for friends and family and trusted stuff, then another used for purchasing, registering with various companies/sites/etc.  Actually I even go a step further and have several - one personal, one for buying from trusted sites like amazon, one for buying from sites I don't know as well, one for e-bills from internet/utility companies, etc.  That second (or 3rd, or 4th) one is the one most likely to get a lot of spam/scam/phishing stuff.  This won't stop the emails, but at least they'll get delivered to that second account and not clutter up your more important emails.  That also gives you the option of deleting that account if it gets really bad and creating a new one without having to tell your friends and family to use a new email (though you still have to update it with sites you used the second one on).

Unfortunately this sort of thing is just becoming the norm now (or really it has been for a couple of years).  You could change your email every year or two, or just get used to deleting these things as they come in.  I (and most) have opted for the latter since changing your email address is such a pain.

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@shadlet wrote:

I am glad (in a sad kind of way) that I am not the only target of these cretins. yarntrails, your handle says that you are a "contributor." 

"Nothing to do with comcast" - "impossible to block them." Is that your take as well on Phishing email reports where I've been directed to send the Source to Abuse@Comcast.net? Then why was I asked by Comcast to do this?

Yes, they are changing the fake sender name each time but they are always coming from outlook.com. What is bothering me now is the volume: They are showing up just about every other day now. Do I need to change my email address to stop this? Marking them as Spam is not working.

Again, you are doing a great job monitoring this forum. How about monitoring these scammers, all using outlook.com. I think Comcast has a responsibility in investigating/tracing/blocking this, since it is their platform the scammers are using. They certainly can afford to hire someone to track these perverts. 

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I am also receiving these blackmail type emails, and a bit relieved to find out that its somewhat common, and I am not the only one getting hit with these.

Should we assume  that they are originating from out of the the country?

I will be changing my old pass words, and hope it just goes away, as really don't care to change

my email address unless a last resort

thanks

I got three each day these last three days. I've also noticed more phishing email as well. I guess the economy is bad for hackers too. 🙃

There are 2000 computers interfacing my modem and your sever turningn on and off my appliances 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/0sznjn6e9jiaf5z/IMG_20210810_195128.jpg/file

I have 2000 computers interfacing and hacking my wifi and your server on photograph turning on and off mine and your property 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/0sznjn6e9jiaf5z/IMG_20210810_195128.jpg/file

https://www.mediafire.com/view/akqe51ornygqhq8/Screenshot_20210808-011210_Chrome.jpg/file

2000 computers are hacking mine and your server on photograph 

[Edited: "Personal Information"] 

https://www.mediafire.com/view/akqe51ornygqhq8/Screenshot_20210808-011210_Chrome.jpg/file

https://www.mediafire.com/view/0sznjn6e9jiaf5z/IMG_20210810_195128.jpg/file