Got an email saying a hacker filmed you? Here's what it is.
- An email claims a hacker recorded you through your webcam while you watched adult content, and demands Bitcoin or it sends the video to everyone you know.
- In almost every case there is no video, no hack, and no access to your device. It's a mass email sent to thousands of addresses at once.
- The old password it may quote came from a data breach, not from your computer. The same breach databases are used in account verification phishing - fake "your account is locked" messages that use your real credentials to seem authentic. That's the whole trick - one real-looking detail to make the bluff land.
- Don't pay. Don't reply. Delete it, change any reused password, and report it. Steps are below.
This is a scam, and the threat is almost always empty. Paying does not make it stop - it marks you as someone who pays, and the demands continue. A separate, more serious version targets people whose real images were obtained, often teenagers - this overlaps with social media account hijacking, where scammers compromise an account to access private content or messages. We cover that case and what to do about it further down.
Does this sound familiar?
Below are reconstructed examples of how these messages look. The wording and amounts change - the structure doesn't. This pattern goes by several names: sextortion email, the "I hacked your camera" scam, the Bitcoin blackmail email, and (the bluff version) a "hello pervert" email. (Illustrations, not real screenshots. Names, addresses, passwords, and wallet addresses are fictional.)
The bluff email and the coercion chat are different threats with the same name. The first is spam with a scary script. The second involves a real conversation and real images. The advice differs, so we treat them separately below.
How the bluff email works
The mass-emailed version - the most common one by far - runs in four steps. No hacking is involved at any point. (The screens above are illustrations of how these messages typically appear.)
Some sextortion isn't a bluff. In financially motivated sextortion, a scammer poses as a romantic interest, persuades the victim to send an intimate photo or video, then demands money under threat of sending it to family, friends, or followers. Here the images are real and the threat is real.
This version heavily targets teenagers, especially boys aged 14 to 17, and federal agencies have linked it to victim suicides.2 Scammers also use AI to build fake explicit images from ordinary photos, then extort people over pictures that were never real.2 If this is your situation, or your child's, skip to what to do now - the steps are different, and there is real help.
Red flags to catch it early
For the bluff email, any one of these is a strong tell. Together they're conclusive.
Almost always an old one you stopped using. It came from a breached website's database, not from your computer.
A 24-to-48-hour deadline paired with a crypto wallet. Crypto is demanded because it's hard to trace and impossible to claw back.
"Pay within 48 hours or it goes to everyone."
Real blackmail with real footage would show you a frame. The bluff never does, because there's nothing to show.
A spoofing trick to imply they're inside your account. Sender addresses are trivial to forge and prove nothing.
No site name, no date, no actual content of the supposed video. Vague because the same script went to thousands of people.
Isolation is the lever. Silence and shame are what the scam runs on. Telling someone is exactly what defeats it.
Got one of these? Here's what to do
Need the steps by payment method? See what to do if you've been scammed.
If it's the mass email (no real images)
Don't pay, don't reply, then close the door behind it
There's no footage and no access to your device. A few minutes of cleanup is all this calls for.
If real images exist, or the target is a teen or child
Stop contact, save evidence, get help - don't pay
Paying rarely stops it and often brings more demands. There are services that remove images and people trained to help.
Where to report it
For the full country guide - agencies, phone numbers, and what happens after you report - see how to report a scam by country.
How big is this problem?
The bluff email has circulated since at least 2018 and spikes whenever a fresh batch of breached passwords hits the market. The coercion version - real images, often teens - has grown sharply and turned deadly. Email was the most common way people reported being contacted by scammers in 2024, according to the FTC's Consumer Sentinel data.6
The bluff email costs the scammer almost nothing. Send a script to a million addresses, drop in a leaked password to make it bite, and a small fraction panic and pay. The economics work even if 99.99% delete it - which is why these waves keep coming.
The coercion version is the dangerous one. The US Treasury's financial-crimes unit, FinCEN, issued a notice in 2025 warning banks to watch for it, citing the FBI's figures and the toll on victims and families.2 Scammers increasingly use generative AI to fake explicit images from someone's ordinary social media photos, then extort them over pictures that were never real.2 The defense is the same in both cases: don't pay, don't stay silent, and get help.
Frequently asked questions
- Is the hacker's claim that they recorded me real?
- Almost certainly not. These emails are sent to millions of people using old email addresses from data breaches. The sender has no access to your camera, your contacts, or your device. The password sometimes included in the email comes from an old breach, not from hacking you.
- Should I pay the Bitcoin demand?
- No. Paying confirms that your email address is active and that you're susceptible to payment demands. It does not guarantee the sender will stop - it typically results in more demands. This is a mass bluff, and paying achieves nothing except losing money.
- What if the email contains a real password I recognize?
- Change that password everywhere you use it immediately. The password came from a data breach database, not your device. Check haveibeenpwned.com to see which breach exposed your email. This doesn't mean your camera was accessed.
- What do I do if someone has actual compromising images of me?
- This is a different and more serious situation. Contact the FBI IC3 at ic3.gov and the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative at cybercivilrights.org for support. The StopNCII platform (stopncii.org) can help prevent images from spreading across platforms. Do not pay.
- Federal Trade Commission, "Scam emails demand Bitcoin, threaten blackmail", April 2020. Bluff-email mechanics, the breached-password trick, and the don't-pay-delete-report guidance. The public comment thread documents the near-identical scripts victims received.
- Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (US Treasury), "FinCEN Issues Notice on Financially Motivated Sextortion" (FIN-2025-NTC2), 2025. Source of the ~55,000 reports, $33.5M losses, and 59% increase figures (FBI, 2024), the boys-14–17 targeting, and the AI/deepfake trend.
- Federal Bureau of Investigation, "Sextortion" guidance. FBI position that paying rarely stops sextortion and offenders typically demand more.
- Brian Krebs, "Sextortion Scams Now Include Photos of Your Home", and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, "New Email Scam Includes Pictures of Your House", September 2024. Security-research documentation of the 2024 "photo of your home" variant. Cited as reported patterns, not government totals.
- FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, "For-Profit Companies Charging Sextortion Victims for Assistance and Using Deceptive Tactics to Elicit Payments", April 2023. Warning that follow-up "recovery" services target sextortion victims - basis for the recovery-scam cross-link.
- Federal Trade Commission, 2024 Consumer Sentinel Network data, March 2025. Email as the most commonly reported method of scammer contact in 2024.
We document recurring online scam patterns using primary sources - government agencies, law enforcement, and security researchers. We do not accuse named businesses, and ads on this page do not influence our reporting. Read about how we research or who we are.