Security News > 2020 > April > How sextortion scam emails sneak past security filters
In the past, most of these sextortion emails were sent in high numbers with links to Bitcoin sites, specific URLs, and other details that raised a red flag with security filters.
That's why many sextortion emails have switched to using QR codes, which many filters can't detect.
In a sextortion campaign analyzed by Vade Secure in 2018, scammers sent sextortion emails via hacked Internet of Things products.
"More than ever, they adapt their campaigns to bypass the email filters trying to stop them. Both sextortion and phishing campaigns tend to be sent in waves-when one fails, another emerges. Each time a threat is blocked, hackers develop new methods of bypassing the filters that blocked them."
"The emergence of artificial intelligence in email security has opened new possibilities in threat detection. With a combination of Machine Learning and Deep Learning algorithms, AI-based email security can detect the signature-bypassing methods hackers use to deliver sextortion emails."