I received an e-mail today from a website I have purchased an item from in the past. It listed my contact information including my address. They are demanding $653 in bitcoin or they are going to release compromising photos of my girlfriend and of myself. They say they have my contacts and will release the photos as well as brick my computers unless I pay. They also say they have compromised my router and any and all electronic devices that have been connected to my WiFi.

The e-mail is from a website that I purchased a bong from for a friend. Grav.com. How seriously should I take this threat? I'm law enforcement but I haven't had to deal with something like this before. I haven't even taken any reports for something like this. The worst thing they could have on me is my financial information. Maybe they have video of me jerking off if they compromised my webcam.

I'm going to do a full system wipe just in case. I have to contact my department now because I have accessed my work e-mail from my personal PC. Have you guys gotten something like this? How much stock should I put in the threat?

dont do drugs

I don't and I didn't. I bought an engraved bong for a friends birthday that lives in Oregon where it is legal. I need to know how seriously I need to take this threat because they are going to want the e-mail and I"m terrified that my department is going to find out I bought a bong for a friend. I know you're just being funny man but I'm genuinely asking for advice here because I am a little scared.

Only need to worry if you have a small pecker and ashamed of it

It was not from them lol check out the website... it was hacked just brings you to a Rick roll with the actual website stating they were hacked of you go back to it.

Check the router logs, maybe it will have a list of everything connected in the past? Not sure what setup you have but mine makes a list of everything that connects and saves it for me. (Even stuff just connected for a minute)

This post was edited by Dasani on Apr 21 2019 04:22pm

if their are no compromising photo's of you and your girlfriend together specifically then it's probably just hoax

change all ur passwords, make ur phone ur backup in case of hijacking

then demand that they give you money *in bitcoin* or you'll take them to court (just be lying or w/e).

Thanks for the serious responses guys. I was genuinely alarmed. I received an email from the website and it looks like their email host was hacked. All is well. Appreciate the assistance.

I would still change router password just to be safe. Also check if you have a timeout option for so many wrong attempts.

Edit: if it's a newer router you can disable remote administration if its active and you dont connect to your router when you are not at home.

This post was edited by Dasani on Apr 21 2019 04:32pm

Will do thank you

Did you open anything in the email?

Most hacking done now days is either just a standard dictionary where they have a word list and just run through it until they get a match... so timeout options are good for that reason same with strong passwords.

Or of they have a little knowledge sometimes they email and add an attachment you open thinking it's from the company but it pretty much allows access to your computer. Once you click on it, it could be running a command in the background like I had happen a while back.. didnt realize I was on a root user & it replaced my ssh config files, made a new user with sudo access, and added a nice little script that auto uploaded my whole home directory to a github page once a day... lol didnt even notice until I seen my wifi usage shoot up while doing nothing. Turned off my PC and took out the ethernet cable after that was greeted with a user named Shelby so log in as..

All email / websites can be cloned easily & if you ever receive an email like that the best way to figure it out is send the customer service an email to see of it is a legit issue.

This post was edited by Dasani on Apr 21 2019 04:54pm