Even though we got a rather good spam filter, we still get spam and scam mails every now and then. Anyhow, earlier this morning, I received a really strange mail from [email protected]. At first, I thought that it was just “another” scam mail among many. However, this one was quite “different”. Because the tone of this scam mail were very aggressive, and the whole thought behind the mail was to blackmail us out off money. So what did the mail say then? Well, you can read the whole mail for yourself down below:

“Unfortunately your data was leaked in the recent hacking of the Patreon web site and I now have your information. I have your tax id, tax forms, SSN, DOB, Name, Address, Credit card details and more sensitive data. Now, I can go ahead and leak your details online which would damage your credit score like hell and would create a lot of problems for you. If you would like to prevent me from doing this then you need to send 1 bitcoin to the following BTC address. ” In my inbox this morning. Clever approach. Buy an email list. Send threatening email to millions. Some of whom with have patreon accounts. Some of whom will be Americans (tax id, SSN references show this to be targeting US peeps). some of whom will get spooked into sending bitcoins. YOU HAVE BEEN ALERTED.”

I ignored the mail of course, but I did also alert Patreon about this (at least I hope that they received my mail?). So it came as no surprise to me that Patreon took actions against [email protected]´s scam mails (since his or her activities is hurting Patreon and the Patreon community). Long story short, Patreon´s CEO/Co-founder sent us (Jack Conte) sent this mail to us today (and everyone else that uses Patreon):

“I learned yesterday evening that some Patreon users have been receiving a scam email. The sender claims to have the recipient’s SSN, credit card number and other personal information. I want to assure everyone that the claims in this email are false, and we are already working with federal law enforcement. Do not reply to the email—it is a scam. The tax forms we store are securely encrypted with RSA 2048-bit encryption, and we do not store full credit card numbers. If you receive this email I suggest you flag it as spam and ignore any further emails. Do not reply. Thanks.” – Jack Conte, CEO/Co-founder, Patreon

In other words, don´t panic. Simply ignore the mail, and if you’re still somewhat insecure about your Patreon account. Then change your password (pick a really good and strong password as well) as soon as possible (and as far as I know, Patreon is yet to offer two-factor authentication on their site. Otherwise that would have been my second advice).

With that said, did any of you guys and girls receive the Patreon scam mail? And what did you do to tackle it?

Robin “V-Act” Ek
The Gaming Ground
Twitter: @TheGamingGround

More by Robin Ek:

• ‘CRACK’ PC giveaway – Four Steam keys for four adventure hungry gamers
• New Old Pixels is to bring the original ‘Toki’ arcade game, to original retro hardware
• The 2D pixel art PvPvE extraction shooter, ‘Project S.U.N.D.I.A.L.’, is coming to Steam on April 27th
• The 1-4 player egg cracking adventure, ‘CRACK’, is coming to Steam on October 26th
• The unique horror game ‘Hoarder’ is coming to Steam in 2027

Tags: Jack Conte, Mail scam, Patreon, Patreon mail scam, Scams