Police now warn of nasty “Sextortion” emails – Salzburg
Online scammers accuse recipients of serious sex crimes while posing as police officers!
Cybercriminals are once again up to mischief with a particularly perfidious scam: the Salzburg State Police Department warns of fake “police letters” that charge the recipients with serious sex crimes.
We are talking about child pornography, pedophilia, cyber pornography and exhibitionism. Potential victims are asked to send a justification to a specific email address. “In order to give the whole thing an official character, the letter bears the Austrian coat of arms and the federal eagle, as well as non-valid police symbols,” the authority said.
This is obviously not real writing, but a variant of sex blackmail, also known as “sextortion”. The experts therefore advise: Always check the text of e-mails carefully – the e-mail addresses are not official government addresses, spellings of names often differ in the letter.
Report it immediately
Also, e-mail attachments should not be opened because they may contain malware. Personal information should not be disclosed and should not be received on questionable letters. Anyone who has already fallen victim to the scam should quickly report it to the nearest police station.