Email claiming access to personal data and videos on hacked iPhone

gracianna58 wrote:

I received an email today from someone who claims he/she has complete access to everything on my phone. What freaked me out was that the sender was shown as myself, complete with my portrait picture and a star next to it. They are demanding I pay a ransom or they will release compromising videos of me on the internet (which is ridiculous because I have never had any compromising photos or videos on my phone). I blocked the sender (which now I realize I may have just blocked myself) and deleted the email - which I now realized I should have saved to show authorities, in case this is a real threat.

I've changed my apple password and am wondering if I should also change my address. I have two-factor authentication set up on all my devices so I don't know how they could have accessed my info. Please help.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Phone hacked

Your phone has not been hacked. No one has any access to anything on your phone. They don't even know you. But they sure tried to scare you and hope you're dumb enough to pay a ransom. Ignore them. Block them. Delete them and move on with your day.

Read this --> Recognize and avoid social engineering schemes including phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support

It’s a scam. Delete it and block the sender. You might also report it to you email provider.

It’s a scam.

You should see the ridiculous scams I get.

Simply block, report and delete the message.

Important:

If you receive a suspicious email or SMS text message that looks like it’s supposed to be from Apple, please email it to reportphishing@apple.com.

Learn how to ⇢ Recognize and avoid phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams.

Good luck! 👋🏼😉

This scam has been going around for years.

The recent change is they use info obtained in the many data breaches you've read and heard about to put just enough together to make the scam sound more real. In this case, looking up a photo of you based on your email address or phone number.

But, they have nothing.