Elderly woman targeted by porn scammers just wanted a free bagel

Arlene Kaganove wasn't fooled by the scam. Photo / NBC5

A 86-year-old US woman's quest for a free birthday bagel led her to a dark corner of the web after being targeted by porn scammers.

Arlene Kaganove of Chicago signed up to bakery chain Panera's reward card using her email so that she could receive a free "everything bagel" on her birthday.

""I am always signing up for whatever comes free on my birthday," she told NBC 5 news.

After signing up to the program Kaganove started to receive threatening emails.

"Extortion letters," Kaganove said, that threatened to release recordings of the elderly woman watching online pornography. "Which I find hilarious."

The emails demanded that Kaganove pay US$1,400($2,130) in Bitcoin or the recordings would be released.

The notes read: "Yep! It's you doing nasty things!"

"They told me I have very good taste in porn so I thought that was nice," Kaganove said.

The emails threatened to reveal recordings of the elderly woman watching porn. Photo / NBC5

The scammers picked the wrong woman, with Kaganove telling NBC 5 that if any such recordings existed "they'd see a little old lady cursing at the computer because it's not doing what I want it to do."

Kaganove, who has two masters degrees in chemistry and a law degree, was not fooled by the extortion attempt.

"I said, 'This is about the most bizarre thing. I have to go tell all my water aerobics buddies about this thing," she said.

Panera admitted that in 2018 its website did leak customer data including names, emails, addresses and birthdays.

The company said fewer than 10,000 customers were affected and the vulnerability has been fixed.

Kaganove says she spoke out to ensure no one else was fooled by the scam.

She said of the threatening emails: "If they are sending six to me, they are sending a lot more to people. I am sure someone is sending them money."