GILBERT, AZ — A warning from Gilbert Police Department: there is a fraudulent email going out to people who live in the area. Police are calling this the “digital extortion” scam.
It is so concerning to some because when someone opens up one of these emails, the first thing they see is a picture of their home or a map pinpointing their exact address.
That is what happened to Ashley Patrick. She did not want to go on camera but did show ABC15 an email she received that police are warning about.
The email shows a photo of Patrick’s home in Gilbert. The sender claims to have been keeping tabs on her, then threatens to send an incriminating video out to her contacts if she does not send a Bitcoin payment of $2,000.
The Gilbert Police Financial Crimes Unit has gotten at least five formal reports about this scam in the last two weeks since the emails first started going out to people around the country.
“Typically when you get a scam, you can almost recognize it right away,” Officer Levi Leyba, Gilbert Police Department's public information officer, said. “In this instance, when somebody sees a picture of their house, right away the red flags go like, ‘Oh, wow, this person has my information.’ When in reality, they just got information that is typically found online.”
Officer Leyba says just because someone found an image of your house, it does not mean they are actually following you or your activity.
If they ask you for a Bitcoin payment, Officer Leyba says the demand is likely coming from outside of the U.S. It should raise a red flag.
The Financial Crimes Unit is now looking at each Bitcoin address to get clues about who is behind the emails.
Gilbert Police say if you do get one of these emails, do not reply, and do not send money. Call the police non-emergency number to report it. In Gilbert, that number is 480-503-6500.
