E-mail messages designed to blackmail people by threatening to reveal their internet use of pornographic websites should be ignored, police said yesterday.

Police issued the warning after several people reported receiving an e-mail from someone who said they had passwords and video footage of them watching pornographic material.

The writer threatened to release the footage to contacts obtained from Facebook and e-mail lists.

The Royal Gazette is aware of one e-mail that made a demand for $7,000 and another of $2,900 to be paid in Bitcoin.

One e-mail read: “I am aware............ is your password. You don’t know me and you are probably thinking why you’re getting this mail, correct?

“In fact, I installed a malware on the adult vids — pornographic material — website and you know what, you visited this website to have fun.

“You know what I mean. While you were watching video clips, your internet browser started functioning as a remote desktop that has a key logger which provided me with accessibility to your display and webcam.”

The blackmail e-mail added: “My software programme obtained all of your contacts from your Messenger, Facebook, as well as e-mail.

“What exactly did I do? I made a double-screen video. The first part shows the video you were viewing — you have a nice taste, ha — and second part displays the recording of your cam.

“What should you do? Well, in my opinion, $2,900 is a fair price for our little secret.

“You’ll make the payment by bitcoin — if you do not know this, search ‘how to buy bitcoin’ in Google.”

A police spokesman said: “The recipient that reported this e-mail to police did not comply with the demand. Residents are reminded that personal information is valuable and should never be relayed over the internet or phone to unknown persons.”

• Suspected internet fraud should be reported to the police Financial Crime Unit by phone or e-mail at fraud2@bps.bm