SingCert warns of extortion e-mails; 33 reports received in August

There were 33 reports in August of extortion e-mails sent to people in Singapore, the Republic's lead cyber security agency said.

- Lee Li Ying

The e-mails ask for money, in the form of cryptocurrency, under the threat of circulating potentially embarrassing private videos of victims recorded via their malware-infected devices.

The Singapore Cyber Emergency Response Team (SingCert), a unit of the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore, issued an advisory on Aug 28 warning the public of these extortion emails.

SingCert said that it has observed multiple variants of the e-mails.

The Straits Times understands that the extortion emails were in English and Malay, and no monetary losses were incurred by the victims.

Those who receive such an extortion e-mail should recognise it is a likely scam and are advised to ignore the threat, SingCert said.