Grifters are pretending to have hacked your computer’s camera

Has someone contacted you saying they’ve got webcam video of you? Don’t pay them.

Army Times
Meghann Myers
October 24, 2018

CID recommends covering webcams (perhaps with a piece of black tape), as well as keeping software updated, using a firewall and changing passwords with another device.

Add another one to the list of scams soldiers should be looking out for. Apparently now internet grifters are pretending to have hacked your computer’s camera and taken videos of you or your family, and they’re threatening to release them unless you pay up.

CID is warning soldiers about scammers claiming to have hacked computer cameras to record illicit videos and are now threatening to release them unless they're paid a ransom. (Getty Images)

Army Criminal Investigation Command is warning soldiers and families to beware of this “hijacked webcam” scam, according to a Thursday release from the Army.

“This is a scam. Do not send any payment to the blackmailer even if you receive an email specifically addressed to you,” CID Special Agent Daniel Andrews, with the Computer Crime Investigative Unit, said in the release. “Sometimes the email includes one or more of your real usernames and seems to directly target you.”
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Another scam preying on nation's heart for wounded soldiers

A plea to help a wounded soldier appears to be a scam
By Rob Johnson
Pensacola (Fla.)
News Journal

PENSACOLA, Fla. – An Internet plea for money to care for a wounded warrior is heart-rending at first glance.

The request for donations describes a young soldier who stepped on an improvised explosive device on Mother's Day.

"My name is Tiffany Fennery, I'm posting this for my family and my twin brother, Chris, who lost both his legs and his left arm," the posting states on Craigslist Pensacola (Fla.).

There's just one problem with the solicitation: It appears to be fraudulent.

The sergeant, Chris Fennery, pictured in fatigues doesn't seem to exist in Pentagon records.

"According to our records there is no soldier by that name," said Department of the Army spokesman Paul D. Prince after checking his branch's database.

The Marine Corps also checked its record, even though the uniform in the Web ad's photograph appears to be an Army uniform.
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