SEXTORTION scams are on the rise with some potential victims receiving “dozens” of emails from crooks a day.

The scams aim to trick users into handing over cash by threatening to expose their dirty secrets – with hacked webcam footage, stolen photos and browsing history.

Generally, the scammers have never actually acquired any of this compromising material.

But they’ll go to great lengths to convince you otherwise, demanding that you pay up or else it’ll be shared with friends, family and co-workers.

Now cybersecurity experts are warning that sextortion is becoming increasingly common.

“Some of us get dozens of sextortion scam emails every month to our work and personal accounts, demanding us to pay money or else,” explained cybersecurity experts at Sophos.

“They typically claim to have filmed you using malware planted on your computer in some way.

"We’ve had numerous emails from readers who never watch porn, don’t even have a webcam, and yet get scared by some of the claims made in these emails.”

Often the crooks will include personal details about you to “prove” that you’ve been hacked.

This might include one of your passwords.

However, it’ll often be an old password that was leaked as part of a data breach. Check if you’ve been caught up in any breaches by going to HaveIBeenPwned.com.

The point is that even if the crooks have your password, they didn’t steal it directly from you – but nabbed it from a leaked breach instead.

Sometimes crooks will also email you with your phone number, but these are often acquired in the exact same way.

Particularly enterprising criminals will send you an email from your own account – or so it seems.

In fact, they’re simply changing the “from:” field on the email to your name, which anyone can do. It’s not proof you’ve been hacked.

The main takeaway should be that unless you see actual proof of a crook spying on you through your webcam (like photos or video clips) it probably hasn’t happened.

“If you receive a sextortion email like the one we showed above, without any stills from the video as proof or a link to view the file, then it’s just bluff and bluster.

“The crooks are just trying to scare you into paying them something.”