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Heavy.com reports that there have been a number of email bomb threats sent out demanding blackmail payments in bitcoin. An example of one message follows:
"Good day. My mercenary has carried the bomb (lead azide) into the building where your business is conducted. My mercenary built the explosive device under my direction. It can be hidden anywhere because of its small size, it is impossible to destroy the supporting building structure by this explosive device, but if it denotates there will be many wounded people.
My recruited person is watching the situation around the building. If he notices any suspicious activity, panic or cops the device will be blown up.
I can call off my man if you make a transfer 20,000 usd is the price for your safety and business. Transfer it to me in Bitcoin and I assure that I have to withdraw my mercenary and the bomb will not detonate. But do not try to deceive me – my guarantee will become valid only after 3 confirmations in blockchain."
So does this sound like somebody who speaks English natively? Can you predict where this is coming from? Can you predict what kind of person sent this? Can you predict what kind of mess this is going to create? Who are you betting is really behind this?
Also at The Register, threatpost, Krebs on Security, and Ars Technica.
(Score: 4, Funny) by MostCynical on Friday December 14 2018, @07:01AM (8 children)
is it an improvement on the "we have video of you looking at porn"?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Insightful) by crb3 on Friday December 14 2018, @07:53AM (4 children)
Those are great; I go through my spam bucket every so often looking for them. With a strict policy of a unique password per login, I can look at the quoted password and nail down just what site that I visited had the data leak. Hm, nope, not buying boots there ever again; good thing the card I used then expired some years back. Thanks for the warning, now go away.
Video? Good luck with that: I don't own a webcam or a smartphone.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 14 2018, @11:36AM (2 children)
It's not as if a web cam usually would be located to show the contents of the screen anyway.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 14 2018, @01:10PM
Yea, but a smartphone user would not know that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 14 2018, @07:40PM
Wait, what's that rectangular reflection in your eye?
(Score: 2) by epitaxial on Friday December 14 2018, @10:06PM
I look at the wallet addresses in those and some have bitcoins in them. Incredible.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 14 2018, @10:30AM (2 children)
No, this isn't an improvement. In fact, it's a poor choice. Just ask yourself "how many employees are going to fork over $20k in ransom for their company?" And this $20k demand is much harder for a schmuck to come up with than the $300 for the "you watched porn!" scam.
I'd venture to guess this results in no bitcoins for the sender.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Friday December 14 2018, @02:41PM
(Score: 2) by nobu_the_bard on Friday December 14 2018, @03:33PM
I've already had more than one client call in the last month asking how to delete their browsing history, and just as casually as possible, ask me if I know where they can get a lot of cheap giftcards, for reasons they assure me are totally unrelated.
Haven't seen a bitcoin version of this scam but I assume it's only a matter of time.
Been giving clients "how to recognize a scam" training which seems to help more than anything else.