Police are warning Exmouth residents and people across East Devon to watch out for online sextortion scams after a rise in the number of cases reported.

Sextortion scam emails attempt to coerce victims to pay a BitCoin ransom to the scammers by threatening to publish videos of the victim visiting adult websites, and state that the scammer has access to all the victims' social media contacts in order to do this.

These emails can be made all the more convincing as the scammers may include one of the victims passwords in the email.

Convincing as they are, it is not even always the case that the victim has in fact been looking at adult websites. So in order to protect yourself:

-Don't reply to or click on any of the links in the email. Report the email to Action Fraud at https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/report-phishing (assuming that you have not parted with money or personal details).

-Don't make the Bitcoin payment. Doing so may encourage more scams as the fraudster will know they have a 'willing customer'.

- you have made the Bitcoin payment, or otherwise parted with money, report it to [email protected] or online.

-If the email includes a password you still use, change it immediately. Also consult this website to see what other of your online information may have been compromised by a data breach of a company or organisation that you have been dealing with.

For more information, about how to protect yourself from sextortion scams (remember, you don't actually need to have been looking at adult material, but the scam emails are nonetheless convincing and threatening) read advice from the National Cyber Security Centre and Action Fraud.

For updates on online and email scams, and cyber crime, follow the Force's Cyber Protect Team on social media. D&C Police Cyber is on Twitter @DC_CyberProtect.