I got a phishing email that tried to blackmail me –what should I do?

Pauline received a spam message that looked like a sextortion or webcam scam

I got this email today. It says "I hacked your device, because I sent you this message from your account." It goes on to claim that it has filmed me watching pornography, and demands $698 in bitcoin. Phishing? Pwned? What to do? Pauline

This is generally known either as "webcam blackmail" or "sextortion scam" and the email should have been diverted to your spam folder. Millions - perhaps billions - of similar emails have been sent over the years, but there seems to have been a flood of them over the past few months.