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How about in the cases that they have personal info in sms messages or voicemail? Info got picked up from somewhere?



For cases like that specifically, it's probable. But those are just like the scam emails where they say "hey, I know your password is ${OLD_PASSWORD}, I recently hacked your account on a popular 'adult recreation' site, remotely put Spyware on your computer, and recorded you 'entertaining yourself' while browsing videos (you have good taste lol). Send me x bitcoins or I'll email this to all the email and linkedin contacts my spyware found in your computer."

It's just an old password found in a breach years ago, they don't have anything else that's real. The difference here is that if they call and leave a voicemail with personal info, go to the police. They're not gonna bother tracking down a social engineering email, but they may be more inclined to go after verbal blackmail.




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