The "Robocallers, Spoofers, & Scammers: Part II" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading my emails and found one from a longtime friend telling me to check out a website he had linked to his email.  I clicked on the link and my life changed instantly.  The site was a pornographic site!  After about 10 seconds of photo after photo flashing at me I closed the link and trashed it.  But, the damage had been done.  I had viewed the site, even if just for a few seconds.  Two days later I got the email that turned my world upside down.  Started with my email address and my password for my laptop computer.  Then the letter began with telling me they were aware of my password as well as everyone of my contacts from Messenger, FaceBook, and email accounts.  They had set up software on the adult streaming website I had clicked on and visited a few days before and had a short video of me viewing the site.  They also told me that they had control of my desktop and obtained a video of me in front of the computer.  Told me I had good taste in videos.  I now had two possibilities they stated.  First, I could ignore the email in which case they would send the recorded video they had made to all my contacts.  Second, I could give them $545.  They would describe it as a donation and destroy the video and I would never hear back from them.  I was to make a payment through Bitcoin (if I don't know this site, I could search 'how to buy bitcoin' in Google).  The address I was to send it to was included.  They followed with...if I am planning on going to law enforcement the email could not be traced.  If I don't send money they will send the video to ever one of my contacts.  I am not supposed to reply to this email or they also will send the video to my contacts.  Wow!  I was frozen in time!  They most certainly didn't have a video of me doing anything since I had just viewed the site for less than half a minute and had closed it.  But, if they were that good that they had made a video of me, they most certainly could photoshop whatever they wanted and they had a view of my face, so they said.  I called my wife who was visiting with our daughter in another state and she realized I was very upset.  We talked and decided I should call the friend who allegedly sent me the link in the first place.  Naturally, he had no idea what I was talking about.  He did tell me it was a scam and don't send any money.  At that point I decided to call the police.  Wasn't long before a policeman was sitting next to me in my kitchen.  He assured me it was a scam.  But, could I be sure?  I was so upset I couldn't eat or sleep.  Then another email came, since I had not sent the money.  Since I hadn't sent them the bitcoins, they had now upped the price to $968.  Everyone, including the Apple computer company rep I called, said it was a scam.  Even saw an announcer on my home TV station talk about the scam, but I wasn't sure.  Then my boss at my part-time framing and matting job passed along a few websites he had investigated to help assure me it was a scam.  One site had the title above their story: Porn Blackmail Scam Rattles Mac Users: What You Need to Know.  I read it and there was a sample letter that they may have sent to people.  Sure enough, the letter I had received was almost word for word what I was reading.  But.... what if...  Well, it has been almost a month and nothing has happened.  Was it a scam?  I sure hope so.  I am now eating and sleeping better, but after this had happened to me, I can see why some people may consider suicide, since they may have too much to lose even if it hadn't been true.  My suggestion to you, if it would ever happen to you... find plenty of help through your family and friends and they will help you weather the storm and return to a normal life.  And... don't dare to ever click on or visit a pornographic site if you are not prepared for something like this to happen.  I know, there is no law saying you can't look at these sites, but hackers and scammers are everywhere on the web and they are watching you.  And, it can scare the crap out of you.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.