I liked the old email scam better

Sus: Slang abbreviation for suspicious, sketchy or shady.

I never thought I'd say this. I miss the old email scams that told me I'd won a million pounds. Or that some unknown relative had died and left me a fortune.

Last week I received an email which is typical of the new type of scam. This writer claimed to have hacked my computer via a website, and demanded a fee of USD 1,700 in bitcoin.

Honey or vinegar?

There's an old idiom: you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. But I suppose the inheritance honey wasn't working, hence the threat of losing my privacy.

I like words so I pay attention to the language that people use. This email fascinated me because the writer couldn't decide whether to be nice or nasty.

It starts with an apology - "I am sorry to inform you but your device was hacked." Then it threatens to post a smutty video to a website for perverts. And then, strangely, it ends with "Take care and have a good day."

A reminder to take care

It is a good reminder to take care. I've seen phishing emails that are amazingly accurate knock-offs of banking sites.

I hope I am experienced enough to recognise fake emails when I see them. But if you are not sure, here are two things to remember:

1. Search the internet for information using the subject of the email. The subject line of this email is: "Do You Do Any of These Embarrassing Things?" Sites like malwaretips.com and myantispyware.com will quickly tell you it is a scam.

2. Understand what is and isn't possible. This email claims that you only had to visit a website to be infected. That's not true. There has to be more involved - like downloading a program or app. And you should already know to be very careful about what you download or what attachments you open.

This scam sometimes includes one of your passwords. The version I received didn't. But I'm been practicing good password hygiene. It's a good time to remind you to use a password manager - you can read more in my previous blog article about the invisible thief.

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