Threatening “I have hacked you” emails

Just thought I would pass comment on this new round of spam in circulation. I receive these sorts of emails all the time. This is the first four lines of the one I received this week:

“Your account was infected! Modify your pswd right this moment!
You might not know me me and you obviously are probably interested why you are receiving this electronic message, proper?
I’m ahacker who burstyour emailand devicesnot so long ago.
Never try to get in touch with me or try to find me, in fact it’s hopeless, because I forwarded you this message from YOUR hacked account.”

I can confidently reassure you that if you receive one of these emails then no-one has hacked your email, no-one has been “watching” you and no-one has been recording your activities.

These emails simply play on people’s insecurities about technology, using news worthy words like “hack” in order to create fear.

If this was an email from a former Gambian General who has $4,000,000 he wants to give you a share of to get it out of his country, you would delete the message out of hand. These “threatening” emails carry no more weight, but because they pick away at things that are real, e.g. they have sent it from YOUR hacked account, people start to wonder if it is really genuine.

Simply delete and move on.

I hope this helps re-assure those of you who might have received something like this and been worried by it.