Text message and email extortion reports are on the rise, DATCP reports

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) – A warning to be wary of extortion emails or text messages.

This is when the scammer claims to have been following you. We have already reported these scamsand they can be scary.

The Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) says it has received an increased number of reports of extortion attempts.

Officials say officials falsely claim they have private and potentially harmful information about you, often video footage. They may imply that they have been observing and recording your actions for a long time. The scammer may even threaten to send the details to your friends, family and colleagues if you don’t pay.

It’s all a scam.

The scammer will usually ask for money in the form of cryptocurrency and the message will be designed to scare you, so remember: don’t panic.

Never send money in the form of cryptocurrency, gift cards, or direct bank transfers. Also change your password, especially if the scammer refers to having one. If you’ve reused a password for multiple accounts, create new, unique passwords for each account to prevent a scammer from gaining access to any of them. It is also extremely important to report this to the authorities. FTC.gov this is a good place for it.

The scammer will often tell you that you have visited an unsafe website, claiming that they have access to your mobile phone camera. They may even send some accurate information to make their claim more believable, such as a photo of your home on Google Maps.

This can be very disturbing and compelling. Again, this is a scam, so pull yourself together, ignore it, and then report it.