An Experience of Being Blackmailed by a Hacker

On February 20, 2019, I received an email that was “sent by myself.” That is to say, both the sender and recipient were my work email at Liulishuo, diff@liulishuo.com (so, couldn’t see the email origin). After a quick glance, the initial judgment was: someone is blackmailing me.

The email’s gist was:

Your email has been hacked. Changing the password is useless; the account is fully controlled.
You’ve been browsing pornographic videos online, and it’s been recorded. On one hand, they’ve recorded the content you browsed, and on the other hand, through controlling the front camera, they’ve captured who you are as well as your emotions and behaviors while watching.
Pay $1,000 in Bitcoin to “keep quiet” and avoid disaster.
If you don’t pay within 48 hours, the recorded video of you browsing porn will be sent to all your email contacts—colleagues, family, and friends.

After receiving this email, how did I feel?

First of all, I can’t deny that about two years before, I had watched porn. In the last two years, I hadn’t, but I had seen various pictures of beautiful women, intentionally or not, scattered here and there.

So, I was scared. If the “hacker” sends the videos of me browsing porn to my colleagues, partners, what will they think of me? Maybe for colleagues and friends without faith, it wouldn’t matter much; they might just laugh it off. What scared me was how they would view a devout Christian like me as such a disgraceful person? How would I face people in the future? (I thought of various cases of Christians, including pastors, falling due to porn and immorality.)
What to do?

My immediate reaction was to pay to avoid disaster, to buy a “hush money”. $1,000 isn’t a huge amount compared to my “reputation”, but I quickly realized this kind of blackmail is continuous; if you pay the first amount, be prepared for the second. But maybe some people really just want a one-time hush payment? I was conflicted…

While feeling anxious, the story of David committing adultery from the Bible rushed to my mind. Then, some questions arose: Are you a Christian? Do you believe God is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient? Are you scared of embarrassing things being known by outsiders, but aren’t you more afraid that these things are known by God? Actually, God already knows. You might hide your faults from outsiders, but can you hide them from God?

Faced with these questions, the earlier fear of having my disgrace made public slowly dissipated, and I felt ashamed and sad inside. I realized I truly am someone who doesn’t know God, a cunning and ugly person, a sinner; I am also foolish and ignorant, thinking I could hide something from the all-powerful God.
Then, I prayed to God and repented. I decided to proactively report this email to my company. As for whether the blackmailing hacker would release the disgraceful video and how my colleagues would view me afterward, I leave it to God. God is omnipotent, both righteous and loving; He accepts and forgives me, far beyond human evaluation and judgment. “Let it be, if it must be.”

Immediately, I contacted the CTO, took full screenshots of the hacker’s email to him, and asked him to check the situation of my hacked email. Later, he arranged for IT colleagues to conduct relevant investigations.

Although I was no longer worried about the outcome of this affair, I still spent a week feeling apprehensive. In the end, I didn’t receive any follow-up emails from this hacker (they probably also used a system to send bulk emails, waiting for a bite).

A year has passed since this incident; I’m writing it down today.

People often say, “There are gods above your head” and “What people do, heaven sees,” but how many actually believe in the divine? If there were true belief in the true divine, there would be far less unfairness, injustice, and lawlessness.

For me as a Christian, I truly hold fear and reverence for this omniscient, omnipotent, holy and righteous God. Before Him, I have nowhere to hide, nowhere to escape, not only in this life but also forever. But my foolishness, ignorance, limitations, and sins make me still not fear and revere this God enough.

1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me. 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. 3 You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it altogether.
Psalm 139:1-4