What is the Pegasus Scam?

The 'Pegasus scam' is an email phishing and sextortion scam that has widely been doing the rounds since mid-late 2024, which seemingly at first, appears to have been sent from your own email account. 

Starting with 'Hello Pervert', the menacing email claims to have installed Pegasus spyware on the recipients device and that they have been recorded masturbating to porn or caught in a 'compromising position'. The email continues with threats to expose the recipient with incriminating evidence to their family, friends and co-workers if they don't pay up. 

Bottom line, it's a hoax to emotionally trigger the recipient into paying money to the cybercriminals via a cryptocurrency account. 

Email spoofing is a known scamming tactic with the goal of impersonating someone's identity to trick recipients into thinking that an email comes from you or from an account or entity you might trust.


What you should do

Do not respond to the email as this will confirm that your account is active.

Do not open any attachments and certainly do not pay any money.

Report the email is as phishing to your email provider.

If any phishing email contains one of your passwords, it's highly likely that it was obtained from a previous data breach, as opposed to anyone having direct access to your device/s. There are online resources to check if your email address has been compromised in any data breaches. 

Do ensure that your passwords are changed regularly and set up two-factor authentication.