Adrian Sutil has revealed that he fell victim to a blackmail threat in the gap between the Spanish and Turkish Grands Prix.
The Force India driver was asked for money by a man who had come into possession of one of Sutil's old computers, which still contained personal information.
The plot was foiled by German police, but Sutil – who has had a difficult start to his 2008 season – said it had been a worrying incident.
"When I came back from Barcelona there was a guy who had the hard disk of my old computer because my father had thrown it away about two years ago," Sutil told the Reuters news agency.
"Somebody took this hard disk out of the computer, recognised me and he wanted to have a little benefit out of it.
"He asked for some money.
"I was a little bit shocked at the beginning, it was a new situation, but finally after four days they caught him and now we have to see what happens."
Although Sutil said the data on the disk was not embarrassing or in any way incriminating, he was unnerved by the intrusion on his privacy.
"All my contacts, my friends, my pictures – all my life was on there," he said.
"You can imagine how bad it is.
"It doesn't matter what is on there but it's my personal things and that's it."