Hello everyone. I'm in a very serious situation and could use any help at all from someone who might have more knowledge than me...
I'm very computer savvy so it's embarrassing to admit this happened to me.
A few weeks ago I had installed some software via a torrent which I've done many times without any issues. Well this time the torrent I downloaded contained a virus that my antivirus did not catch. I noticed after running the .exe files that nothing was happening and that's when I started to worry. I installed another antivirus Malwarebytes and it detected many things like malware and some trojans as well as something called "Spyware.PasswordStealer" so I quarantined everything and restarted several times until nothing further was detected. Over the next few weeks I noticed log in attempts on my emails, my bank accounts, and was getting security code texts to my phone indicating my information had been breached. I have since changed all my passwords and canceled debit cards and did everything I could but unfortunately it was too late...
A couple days ago I received a blank email and it CC'd all my old emails, but there was no attachments so I just ignored it. Then about 20 mins later my ex from years ago contacted me with a screenshot of the same person emailing her but hers had a screenshot of a video she sent me from when we were together that is NSFW. Well the blackmailer from the email is demanding we give them 2k in bitcoin or else they will post what they have online. I explained to my ex what I have been dealing with lately and I didn't even know this video or picture or whatever they have still existed... I spent the entire day searching trying to find where it is but cannot locate and videos or pictures. All I can think of is that they were automatically uploaded to an old cloud backup storage (google photos or google drive maybe?) of some sort that these guys had hacked into and now are using it against me. Unfortunately my ex thinks I am the one trying to blackmail her and said she has hired a detective to try and figure out who this is if it's not me... but she absolutely believes it's me.
I'm innocent in this and told her I would give the cops my full cooperation of course but I need some help in collecting this information!
I began to try and collect anything I could - I have the original torrent with the virus which is still available to download unfortunately, so I redownloaded it and put it on a thumb drive (but did not open it!) in case I or the cops can use it. In my malwarebytes software I didn't see the history or log for these viruses and I'm not sure if I cleared it by accident, but after searching online I managed to locate the logs of the previous scans and viruses in my "C:\ProgramData\Malwarebytes\MBAMService\LOGS" folder, I also still have the emails from the person who is trying to blackmail us if they can somehow gain information from the email source.
I know this might not be the right place to ask but... should I get my own lawyer? Should I contact the police myself and give them this information? Can they even do anything with the torrent or virus? I'm at a complete loss as to how I can clear my name or prove my innocents, and if anyone could help me or give me some tips I would GREATLY appreciate it. Thank you.
