goon2019
Posts 392
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If you've been hacked, don't count on the police for help
An email pops up in your inbox and your eyes widen. A stranger claims to have video footage of you watching porn and asks for $1,000.There's outrage and embarrassment. You reach for your phone. But then you wonder, "Who do I even call?" Unfortunately, the answer to that question is complicated.
As it turns out, even law enforcement officials can't agree. The FBI and your local police both suggest that you should call them. But experts warn that in many cases, neither agency will be able to help, especially if the criminal is asking for so little money.
This dynamic underscores why these kinds of hacks -- and yes, the porn scam really happened -- are starting to proliferate. There's no clear answer on who to call. And from law enforcement's perspective, many of these crimes are too small to be worth prosecuting. It's no surprise that cyberattacks have run rampant across the web, as thieves online find ways to steal credit card information from millions of people without leaving their homes.
"If the people doing it keep the dollar amounts small enough that no individual police department is going to be motivated enough to prosecute, you can collect a lot of money from a lot of people all around the world," said Adam Bookbinder, the former chief of the US Attorney's cybercrime unit in the district of Massachusetts.Sometimes these crimes don't even involve a hack. An email scheme in which scammers spammed inboxes threatening to blackmail victims, without any evidence, netted $28,000 over two months, researchers from cybersecurity company Digital Shadows found.
But unless it's a public concern, there's a good chance no one will handle it, said Bookbinder, who's now a cybersecurity and privacy team member with the Holland & Knight law firm.https://www.ttspy.com/hack-phone-contacts.html
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