[SOLVED] "I know [mypassword] is one of your password on day of hack.."

[mallomar]

I got very similar email messages from 2 different people today , both messages with the same title and one of my actual passwords. (Both messages were flagged as spam.)

Both messages demand a ransom. If I don't comply, they will send porn videos (that they claim I accessed online) to all of my contacts.

It sounds like bull to me, but how should I handle this? Obviously I won't contact the senders. I ran Malwarebytes Anti-Rootkit Beta and it didn't find anything.

I dimly remember that at least one of the online forums that I'm a member of posted a message that their site had been hacked and passwords stolen. And Troy Hunt's Pwned Passwords search confirms that my password has been exposed. This was last year, or possibly earlier.

So my question is, am I probably right in that the messages are just trying to scare me? If they actually had the power to take over my computer, they would have done it. I think they just got my password and don't have the ability to actually do anything to my computer, and are just hoping that threatening me will scare me into paying them (via Bitcoin).

I have Windows 10 Home, and I'm using Avast (free version). I'm open to suggestions for what security programs I should be using. Including whether I should be using a program that encrypts my password or something (I'm really not up on that).

TIA.

Mod Edit for Language

 

[Wolfshadw]

If the password they gave you is an active password, you probably want to change that immediately. Other than that, there's nothing you need to do.

I recently received a similar e-mail. It was a password that I hadn't used since the previous e-mail scam threaten me some years prior. I guess these new hackers didn't realize the passwords list they purchased was several years old.

-Wolf sends

 

[mallomar]

Thanks. I ditched that password.

And I checked https://haveibeenpwned.com/Passwords (that site is legit, right?) and discovered that another of my passwords needs to be changed. Guess I need to check all of my passwords.

 

[Wolfshadw]

Ideally you change all of your passwords about every three months and never use the same password for more than one site. As for the website you mention, I cannot comment on it's legitimacy.

-Wolf sends