• Residents of Norton, Kansas have been victims of a new sextortion scam
• Hacker threatens to send private videos to the victim’s relatives and co-workers
• The actor behind the crime demands $800 worth of Bitcoin as ransom

In Norton, Kansas, an email is being circulated to some residents that their computer was hacked which enabled the adult videos they had accessed as well as their actions while watching the video to be captured, and as such $800 is being demanded per recipient of the email in order not to leak the video, reports The Next Web on April 24.

Bitcoin ransom demanded

Based on the report, residents of Norton have been plagued by a sextortion scam which is aimed at obtaining at least $800 from anyone who falls a victim to the scam. An email is first sent to a random person with details on how they were supposedly attacked and their next course of action.

The email in question was revealed by the Norton Kansas Police department who has warned the general public to be wary of such emails, avoid clicking on them entirely, and desist from sending money to the attacker.

A closer look at the message’s content shows the hacker’s claim that they were able to obtain remote access to the user’s computer through their internet browser, but first, a malware was embedded on the adult site which was able to hijack the browser.

The browser access then enabled them to control the computer and gain access to its screen and webcam. As a result, they were able to turn on the webcam in a bid to capture the action the user was performing while also capturing the event on their screen.

There are also claims that the users’ passwords were hijacked in the process and even if it is changed, the malware will update the data on file.

Victims told to trust ‘Hacker code of honour’

Furthermore, the mail’s recipient is warned not to destroy the malware, format their hard disk or contact the sender and authorities since it would do them no good because the data has already been stored in a server.

They have also been promised that if they act accordingly, the threat to send their private videos to their contacts, relatives, and co-workers will not be carried out as per a “hacker code of honor”

The instruction, in this case, is for the recipient to send $800 (USD) of Bitcoin’s worth using either the public address or QR code that has been provided with the email.

It is also worthy to note that the hacker has made provision for a newbie who may have never used Bitcoin by instructing them to search on Google for “how to buy Bitcoin”

Like every sextortion or ransom message, this one also comes with a time frame which the recipient is expected to make the payment if not they could face the possible risk of having their private data shared publicly.

While some may not bat an eyelid to a message of this nature, those who are a public figure may be slightly intimated. An instance is the case of 2018 where a scam of this nature was reportedly able to raise $17,000 in 2018.