Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office
-Investigative Operations Bureau

PINELLAS COUNTY—The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office is encouraging the public to be on alert for recent email scams.

According to detectives, the suspect is emailing citizens a PDF attachment with their name, address, Google Street View image of their home, and a plan to extort them. The scammer tells the victim that they have downloaded spyware onto the victim’s phone to monitor their cell phone activity and will release the content to the public if their demands are not met. The scammer is requesting money via a Bitcoin transfer with a QR code on the PDF attachment. This is a scam!

We advise citizens to refrain from opening or clicking on any links/emails from unknown or unverified sources, and do not scan unknown or unverified QR codes. In these cases, we believe the scammer is using fear as a motivator, and there has been nothing to support the claim that anyone's devices have been compromised.

If anyone has information on this scam or has become a victim, they are asked to call the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office at (727) 582-6200.