The police have received more complaints about pornography-related e-mail extortion scams, with around 70 cases reported since September last year.

From September to October last year, more than 15 police reports were made.

Giving an update on Facebook on Monday, the police said victims reported receiving e-mails from unknown accounts or accounts that resembled their own.

The scammers would claim they had screenshots of the victims watching pornographic materials, and would threaten to expose them to their family and friends unless they made a bitcoin payment.

In some cases, victims were told their computers had been infected with malware, which allowed their online activities to be monitored.

In other cases, scammers claimed that they had the victim's e-mail account password, or had obtained the victim's contacts from social networking platforms, to add credence to their threats.

The police advised the public to be wary of such e-mails and to ignore any instructions to make payments. They also urged the public to protect their e-mail accounts by using strong passwords, two-factor authentication and updated anti-virus software.