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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: 1) by MrBoogers on Friday December 14 2018, @07:57AM (1 child)
My best guess would be an asian learner of American English. They use past tense instead of the perfect tense. Weak understanding of articles suggests a native tongue without plurals. There seems to be a bit of copy and pasting of sentences together "I can call off my man if you make a transfer 20,000 usd is the price for your safety and business." I imagine that it's a mass mailing by a young male that's into IT because of the understanding of confirmations and because it's so vague.
(Score: 2) by legont on Friday December 14 2018, @06:03PM
This is just a Pidgin English https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English-based_pidgins [wikipedia.org]
The wast majority of the world population uses it, including most international business dealing. Pure English is relatively rare.
Thai's famous example of perfectly grammatically correct one: "Me motorbike go home".)
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.