New email scam demands money using personal info, pictures of victims’ homes

CHARLOTTE — More people are receiving emails demanding money, containing pictures of their homes and personal information about them, and they’re wondering if they’re real.

Action 9 investigator Jason Stoogenke found the new emails look much more realistic than some he’s seen in the past. That’s likely because criminals are now using artificial intelligence programs like ChatGPT.

Not only does AI make it harder to spot a scam, but it also lets criminals crank out the emails even faster.

Lonnie Ross told WSB-TV in Atlanta that it’s not so much what the email he received said, but what it included.

“So it had my phone number, my address, email, my name,” he said. “And what really got me, they took a picture of my mailbox.”

His mailbox and his yard were in the photo as proof, apparently, that someone had his personal information.

“You just don’t know,” Ross told WSB.

People nationwide report getting emails like that one which say someone has personal information about you they gathered after you clicked on malware. The demand is $2,000 in bitcoin.

“It’s very well written, very convincing,” Ross said.

Cybersecurity researcher Willis McDonald told WSB the scammers don’t have access to your devices like they claim. He said the pictures are lifted from Google Maps, but added that the scammers probably did get some information about you through a data breach.

“This is a direct result of something like that, where your data has been breached,” McDonald said. “It’s got your phone number, your email, your name.”

In 2023, the FBI received more than 69,000 cryptocurrency complaints, adding up to $5.6 billion in losses. That’s up 45% over the previous year.

For Lonnie Ross, it’s quite literally too close to home.

“It just felt like you’ve been violated,” he said.

As Stoogenke reported, the pictures that make the emails seem so threatening are actually available online. One thing you can do is ask Google to blur your home. Click here to learn how you can request to blur or remove a photo on Google Maps.

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