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Bitcoin Bomb Threat Scam Circulating

posted by martyb on Friday December 14 2018, @06:36AM   Printer-friendly
from the best-conspiracy-theory-wins dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

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.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by crb3 on Friday December 14 2018, @07:53AM (4 children)

    by crb3 (5919) on Friday December 14 2018, @07:53AM (#774315)

    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.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 14 2018, @11:36AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 14 2018, @11:36AM (#774347)

    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

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 14 2018, @01:10PM (#774367)

      Yea, but a smartphone user would not know that.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 14 2018, @07:40PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 14 2018, @07:40PM (#774528)

      Wait, what's that rectangular reflection in your eye?

      Enhance.

  • (Score: 2) by epitaxial on Friday December 14 2018, @10:06PM

    by epitaxial (3165) on Friday December 14 2018, @10:06PM (#774573)

    I look at the wallet addresses in those and some have bitcoins in them. Incredible.