Bitcoin Forum

And interesting topic here;

 Randolph police warn of new email scam demanding bitcoin (https://www.newportdispatch.com/2024/09/12/randolph-police-warn-of-new-email-scam-demanding-bitcoin/)


The scam attempt seems so simple, yet there are still people who fall for it. It’s a threat, though we don’t always know what kind, but for those who aren’t familiar with the technology, seeing an email where the scammer knows their address and even has a picture could really scare them, not realizing it just came from Google Maps. That’s why people need to be more educated about these kinds of scams and the technology behind them to help minimize cases like this.

Yeah that is pretty scary. Especially since they send a photo of your house and unless you recognise it was a Google streetview photo you are going to freak out and assume they live in your city and you might be in danger.

I heard the ones where they just email you and threaten but didnt think they would send along photos of your place of residence. The things scammers will do is crazy these days and downright scary.

Hopefully not too many people fall for these scams but I am sure some will because they wont want to put their family at risk.

People will definitely be scared if they’re not aware of these kinds of scams. That’s why the police advise not to reply or just ignore it, because they’re not going to follow through, it’s just their scam. If you fall for it, then sorry, say goodbye to your money.

According to the report, they’re asking for a big amount, around $1,950 to $2,000... so even if 1,000 people fall for it, they’ll end up making millions from the scam.

So they target people who put their details on their Google accounts and tag them on Google Maps? Damn, even if there's no blackmail attempts through e-mails I'd be worried for their safety. Sounds like these people don't have a good knowledge about privacy and security in the first place.

How did the scammers know the images are related to their target btw? Do people upload their location details publicly? A bad idea to put our real name and photo on Google. It's hard to make sure no personal details are leaked.

Oh my God! Scams are increasingly rampant these days as technology is advancing especially in this era of cryptocurrency, they are getting more desperate and their deceit styles are advancing. I know enough of their schemes and there is no way I can become a victim because I don't associate with strangers' offers not to talk of the digital communications I am unfamiliar with, I just ignore or delete them immediately. But what scared me a little was the Google Map of a thing, I am sure that most people would fall for it especially if their revealed details are genuine. Thanks for the exposè, many should endeavour to educate themselves on this instead of always watching TikTok comedies. :-X

This types of scams are really terrifying, especially to those who aren't that well-versed in technology. It creates the feeling of invasion through depicting personal information or images from Google Maps. But I think these scammers are just using publicly available information. It is not like they have hacked into our private life. Also, people tend to fall for this in the case of panic. While the scammers may include names and addresses in that mail, they actually do not have access to sensitive data but are trying to scare us into paying up.

This is why I never want to fill my home address or any other personal information if I already can use the service/tool only to fill certain important information. This is really scary because it can be happened to anyone and anywhere.

However, this can also happened if you're often use delivery to your home when you purchase something from online marketplace or you order foods from Uber. If I buy from online marketplace, I will use PO boxes and I stop buy foods online, instead I go out and buy it by myself.

This scam method is beyond stupid. Unfortunately, many people are falling for this stupid sh*t.
"Pay us 2K USD or we will visit your house and beat your ass!" I would laugh my ass off, if I get an email with such sentence.
The victim receives an email saying that his/her computer was infected with a "Pegasus malware"? If your computer really gets infected with a malware, you will most likely notice it immediately(if you have a good anti-virus), and there's no need to get reminded via an email.
What the hell is this Pegasus malware? Did some fan of the Yu-Gi-Oh anime create that malware? ;D
The scammer is stupid enough to use Gmail addresses and demand BTC payments(Bitcoin transactions can be tracked). I'm also sure that the scammer doesn't use BTC mixers to hide the origin to all the BTC, that he received. Let's hope that the police will do it's job.

If I am not wrong there was time people used to recieve threatening messages seeking ransom because they acquired their personal information like private conversation, video, image and that is quite severe compared to this but the only recommended solution at that time was just ignore them because they are not going to do anything at all even if you haven't pay whatever they're demanding and that should be the one for this as well.

If I have never used any mapping application as accurate as google maps, I will doubt that such a technology would exist. There are many people who doubt that such technology exists elsewhere aside from in movies so if they happened to be one of those who received such a threatening email, because of the suspense of how the image of their home was gotten they may be forced into believing that the scammer actually knows their homes. Exposure will save many people from these sort of scams, that is why it is necessary to stay informed, or at least have someone who is more informed than you are.

Not scary at all. If you don't owe money to anybody and nobody suspects that you have a large amount of crypto somewhere, then why would anybody be concerned enough to believe that some random who they've never even heard of will attack them just because they posted a picture of their street or house?

Their addresses must have been public already, but the scammers themselves have no reason to go there.

Good thing I don't check my email often, so I'm safe from this kind of scam. Just kidding. ;D

Seriously though, this is a huge problem, and the blame really falls on the government. How can people, especially those with money who are clueless about crypto or these specific scams, protect themselves? We all grow older (that’s just reality), but we shouldn’t stop learning.

Nowadays, being old isn’t an excuse to stay out of touch with the latest technology trends. That’s the only way we can prevent ourselves from falling for these scams, and the government has a big role in educating everyone.

I saw this in the news actually the other day.  The sad thing is, this will work and work really well.  I have tracked addresses over time that were linked to scams, and man it's sad how many people fall for them.

Now a lot of people fall for the whole "Here's your email address and password.  We've hacked your computer and if you don't send us .1 bitcoin to this addresses, we will leak videos of you watching porn that we have via your web-cam".  That can be scary for someone who doesn't know any better and doesn't keep a privacy shield over their pc camera, but I imagine someone getting a threatening email with not only their name but their actual home address/photo of their home..that sort of takes things to a whole new level. 

I still fondly remember my first ever scam attempt email, the infamous "Nigerian Prince" email scam.  I was a younger but remember thinking it was hilarious and a pathetic attempt.  Boy have we come a long ways.

Worst part is this due to KYC leak of an online account such as exchange, casino and so on that includes all our personal information such as email, address and ID which is included on our account.

Searching via google map is very easy while sending the attached email on the account with KYC will do the trick to this scam attempt.

No matter how much we try to educate such people, they'll still fall for scams time after time. The scammers know the psychology of the victims and that's how they get success in scamming those innocent people. But, what else can we do other than educating the people as it's not possible to track out each scammer and put those behind the bars.

Even if such actions are taken then still the scammers will find a new way to scam people either in physical world or in internet world. I believe the authorities should take strict actions against the scammers when they find any, so out of fear most scammers will think twice before trying to scam someone. But, I don't think that anything like that will happen and that's why awareness should still be given the highest priority.

People who are not familiar with technological developments will certainly be afraid when they receive threatening emails, especially when the fraudsters include pictures of the house and the complete address of their potential victims. Advice from the police is very helpful in minimizing cases like this, lay people will be calmer after advice from the police to immediately ignore the message.
There needs to be public service announcements distributed through social media, print media and other electronic media to educate the public so that they do not panic easily when facing a situation like this. Contacting the police department is also a smart move to get help and support.

I don’t think it’s coming from there. If I have an account on an exchange or casino, that means I’m already aware of crypto and the scams related to it, so I won’t fall for them easily. I believe the information source might be from outside the crypto world, maybe through social media platforms like Facebook, which many people use today.

People suffering from anxiety disorder will cheaply fall for this scam. These sets of individuals are just scared of the unknown which might make them believe these scammers. I have a relative who just believes that she is being monitored by her former employer. We have done everything to convince her that this is not the case, but she wouldn't believe it. The elderly might also fall victim since most are not used to technology.   


If you work in a government organisation in my country, your data can be easily obtained from the internet. This is because the recruitment, employment, and promotion process is always uploaded online. And this information usually comes with the personal information of these public servants. One just has to be careful and always vigilant.

I mean just mark it as a spam and block, we all know there are thousands of scams like these and there is no point in making a blog post about all of these. Those who are using Bitcoin or Crypto to demand money through these scams are wasting their time, I am sure they can make more money by actually working somewhere than sitting on your PC and waiting for someone to get scammed.

Most of these people will not get more than one hit for their scam, while the vast majority never see a single victim for all of their phishing.

It's sort of like an exponential graph, where most scammers get nobody or just one, and only a select few are smart enough (or lucky enough) to ensnare thousands of people into the same trap at once. And more often or not end up being on some wanted list somewhere like the Twitter scammers of 2020.

My question is how would scammer gets our mail to send out that threatening mails? To me i think this things are being done by a close by friends or neighbors who knows that such people are holding enough bitcoin or that knows that such person trades bitcoin. Sincerely google street view doesn't give you view of someone's home, meaning it's archives the old post and updates from google so if someone is that clever enough they would know that it's not a recent photos.

For instance, i was looking for out for hotel that accepted bitcoin within my locality and i google, it shows me with google photos, when i zoomed more closely and follow up and got to the location, it was entirely different from what i saw on google, and if this photos are sent to someone who is working there they would easily detects that is scammers trying to scam them. I say this due to our country standard, i don't know of others how technology function enough to view up google with recent photos of someone's home.

I'm not sure, if residents show contact details on google map, the only people who do upload details on there are businesses. Maybe hackers are behind the scam threat, and the police only predicted that those pictures came through google map. I do not believe so, their details and photos could have been generated through social media platforms, then traced down on google map. However, as weird as it is, and considering the insecurity in the world, it's some thing to be scare about.

This might be a simple scam attempt and I think that there's almost the same technique as the cons will scare the victims about them being able to browse their files. The scammers could have some partners wherever they're gathering this information. That's why always choose and be vigilant where you're signing up for your details because, with just a few searches away, they can Google Map our locations and scare us with whatever message they'd send us. But, for someone who's informed and won't be fooled easily by this scam attempt, there's nothing to worry about.

I can already see the cohort who will get affected by this. It is the older generation, less tech savvy users who possibly living alone or have no one else to depend on to. They have a lot of doubt and apprehension and easily get coaxed in paying such scammers. It is our duty to teach them about the nuances and try to prevent these things from happening.

One can try cleaning up their emails every few days or the gunk that get stuffed in, such emails will not be hard to find there.

The scammers will do anything to trick people and get their money. They can use an image from Google Maps easily and send the email to people and asking for money. We must be careful to share our identity in any website or people so we can prevents the bad things that can happen to us. We can not deny that the scammers will search for many methods to scam people so that is why we must be aware from anything that comes. If we gets suspicious email, we can report it to police and let them investigate and if possible, the police with catch the scammers. We can do prevention from the scamming but the first thing that we must do is keep calm down and think to search for more info about that so we can decide what we need to do.

Provably they are one of the best target of scammer since usually they are the one who easily got affected on what they read online. It happen to my uncle where he receive a message that he win certain huge amount on certain program then the one who sent a message is asking for money for said registration before he can get his winning. Luckily we notice this activity and warned him that this is just a scam. And don't believe on such offer again especially if they didn't join any raffle or activity that can give them rewards.

Those scammers is exploiting the weak that's why sometimes its better to have certain discussion about scams in our family especially that people nowadays are staying long time online so they can able to determine what is scams and avoid it.

Scary when you read it, but if you apply logic here, doesn't make sense, so yeah, I do agree that it will only fool the weak and not those who have been in crypto for so long that this kind of attacks have been a recurring theme already.

Nevertheless, it's better to be very careful, as the number of physical attacks to Bitcoin holder have been increasing. And then online scammers trying to re-invent themselves with this so called email scams any any other scams for that matter.

In my opinion, if you use email, it means you are not fully blind to technology, because usually email will also be used for other things in the online world such as for registration of social media accounts and so on, especially for people who are finally fooled by sending money in the form of bitcoin to fraudsters this means that he understands or knows about Bitcoin, it's just that fear makes him unable to think well.
It is unfortunate for those who are deceived they should be able to ask those closest to this so they don't fall into this fraud

Usually public services will socialize about this form of fraud after there are victims.

These are the questions I was taking while reading through the post. Google Maps will only show the picture of the house and the address. The email and names of the people that live there are not shown. So I believe they target people who have their details on google. Probably also found out their social media too. Got the address and pictures from their socials and looked for the address on Google Maps.
This further goes to show how exposed we can be and how we need to be more careful. There are certain personally details that shouldn't be visible for others to see because it can be exploited.
I see people put their addresses on their social media sometimes, except its a work-related address, it shouldn't be public. Your home address should be private.
Pictures that revel where you live shouldn't even be on the internet.

These scammers leverage one one's vulnerability to be able to exploit their victims. I know many will be talking about those without enough knowledge being their targets, while that is true and could form a larger part of their targeted audience, even the knowledgeable ones and experienced people can be their victims too. Being careless with the way we operate our transactions sometimes due to our undue comfortability and overconfidence in our professionalism do bring about vulnerable conditions that make us fall into victim.

When dealing with funds and initiating transactions, it is good to always trade with care and exercise patience with the process. Being too hasty brings about vulnerability which is just what a scammers might require to gain his chances over you.

Scammers are becoming more innovative everyday and if you're not a step ahead of their wicked schemes you can become one of their victims. There's need for people to be informed about trends on what is happening in their environments and the world at large. Anybody that is not aware or is ignorant of their information on Google map will definitely panic if they receive threat messages with information about their privacy. These scammers takes advantage of Bitcoin decentralization to ask for ransom payment with it thereby giving the coin a bad reputation. The good or the bad can hold Bitcoin and I hope that those that are still skeptical about it should understand the fact

I thought this fraud only applies in my country, fraud like this apparently occurs in all countries, maybe there are slight differences in each mode, if in my country they send it via email and continue via WhatsApp, if we don't have enough references about this type of online fraud, you will definitely be tempted by the amount of money offered.

Never give in to blackmail, once you start paying a blackmailer, it does not stop, they'll always come back again, and once you stop the payment, they'll carry out their initial threat, so what's the point paying in the first place.

In this case, it is nothing but an empty threat, maybe these people's addresses are public, or they were victims of a data leak, but what are the odds of the attacker tracking you, and if you are scared of their attack, the right thing to do is to report to the police or move to a new home, if that is possible, but never to send them money, because it solves nothing.

It may be someone close who is trying to scam them or not but to clear your doubt there are several ways that a scammer can get someone's email without going through their phone. We know there are lots of sites where we logins our email information, some fake site that also demands an email for a person to subscribe to their newsletter. And not just that most sites we open in our browser cannot be trusted because some do sell users information while some collect the information for themselves, and the main aim is to send scam messages to users.

Apart from such threat, I heard about another one which user get threatened with their nudes or cheating photos. I wonder how they get to have the information of the victim. But funny enough that is where i suspect that someone who is close to the persons is responsible for doing those things.

Things like this happen because of someone's ignorance about bitcoin and ambition to get bitcoin for free so that fraud on behalf of bitcoin prizes but having to pay in advance on the pretext of taxes or other things is always rife even though in the end the method used looks template because it always happens often but there are always people who are fooled by this especially people who are new to bitcoin.

It is important to remind each other in this case even though such situations cannot be prevented directly but we can still remind the closest people around us especially new people not to trust too much with this kind of thing and do not need to be tempted by the lure of a big prize because in the end the first rule (even though it is not in writing) but must still be realized that do not trust too confidently with someone when dealing with a valuable thing (in this case our portfolio assets).

Blackmailing is something that is too common nowadays because when going into a hotel with someone be it your friend or lover you gat to be very mindful and careful while entering inside the hotel. I can also remember a nude photos of a celebrity that was shared across to blackmail her. Yes of course there are people behind all these and should be very mindful while involving oneself to online sites most especially as you said of subscribing to newsletter and other sign up from site.

This type of scam is actually very scary, and I would also be very surprised when an unknown person sends a picture of my house to my email and asks for payment. Especially in this day and age, there are many crazy people and criminals on the streets, and it is no wonder that many people are trapped in scams like this. That's why as internet users we must be able to ensure and understand things like this and not panic about threatening emails or other things that threaten our lives. Always be vigilant and careful in responding to various things, or if you are not sure, immediately report to the police if there is something suspicious

How are you so sure that people actually fall for such scams ? Does the report say how many fell for this scam ?
Although it's good to raise awareness but I doubt people actually fell for it.
Why would somebody pay anyone just because they showed their street picture in an email.

You are right blackmailing is very common and it comes in different forms so is advised for people to always be very watchful from the kind of friends they have and also the information given to them because it can be used against them when they less expected because I could also remember what happened to the celebrity you mentioned how she was blackmailed through her nude photo, so the question was that how dose her nude photo got to the person without an insider, so actually if they really go dip down they would be surprised with what they would unveil, so actually I believe that is only someone who knows the person very well will be able to get all there private information including there house address to threaten them through there mail.

My father was saying a couple of hours ago that crypto scams are heading up on a different hot scale again and my comment was nope, compared to those old defi and phishing links things are under control now, but it seems I'm really unaware of maximum scams. I'm not sure if he got such kind of email or any other phishing link or he just made a comment while reading some TG News (news from a telegram channel as he follows many of such news alert channels).

Keeping a low profile in your social media and your actual life is important as it helps you to boost your privacy level and, in the coming era you'll realize how badly your data can be used to threaten you, scam you, and even blackmail won't be surprising. This is especially true when it comes to sensitive matters like Bitcoin holdings and other asset data. The fewer people who know about your assets and personal details, the more secure and protected you'll be in the long run

Damn, same old. Stories like this unfortunately always tarnish the reputation of bitcoin. People that have no clue of crypto and btc in general often see these stories and what stays in their head is that "criminals use bitcoin", very sad.
But what can we do about this actually? Without losing the last aspects of "privacy", how can we make bitcoin and other currencies less attractive for fraudsters? There is a reason they are using it of course, because it's still the easiest way to get financial transactions fast and "anonymous". Both these things are great for us normal people but even better for the scumbags of the world.  :'(

No matter how easy you think a scam strategy is, people are still falling for it, but I don’t think the strategy which you just mentioned is difficult, but I will say it’s dangerous, because the person’s life is already at risk. We have to be careful which the sites which we inputs our details, we shouldn’t just submit our kyc on anyhow website’s, if it’s not really necessary, we should try and avoid it. Because most scammers do end up getting people’s informations on websites.

When we receive mails like this, the first thing which we are suppose to do is just to report to the nearest police station, because the email involves a threat, and we don’t know what the person is really capable of doing anything, the person might end up doing anything if what he requested for is not given.

If they say that for this reason and stay away from BTC, then maybe they are dumb and they should indeed stay away, because in my country scammers try to scam people of their fiat on a daily basis. It is either they make a phone call impersonating as a rep of a service, and request that the person sends them their dedit card details, they even do it through sms, hell, they also show up in people's homes with guns and steal their money. They should say 'criminals use fiat more than they use BTC'.
There is nothing we can do, BTC is just a tool, criminals use many other tools as well. People should just learn how to protect themselves from scammers.

When your live is in "trouble", you tend to do something like sending money to these scammers just to keep yourself safe.
Who will be the ones that will fall to this kind of trap? Newbies probably especially those who aren't aware of these cheap tricks that these scammers are using.

It's so simple, but effective at some cases. Unfortunately, there will be people who will fall to this trap for sure. Getting educated is the best way for us not falling to these tricks, but the problem right now is, the internet is full of misinformation, full of so-called gurus misleading these newbie investors that's why it's harder to learn right now compared to what it is a few years ago when I'm still starting. I'm already thinking that having somebody knowledgeable beside you is a must already if you're a newbie, but nevertheless, let's folow what the authorities said to us. Ignore the email, and don't ever think that you're in trouble especially if you don't think that you are.

Scams are everywhere folks. Always be equipped with knowledge, and always learn because everything is evolving, including scammers.

It is indeed a very interesting topic.  Scammers are really getting bold nowadays.  They really maximize their effort into deceving people and scamming them.  If anyone anonymous or representing an organization that is unknown to us and is demanding a payment, then we all know that it is a scam attempt.  Only people who are naive will fall to that trap.



True, it is a sad thing to think of, people falling to an obvious scam.  I do not know what got into the minds of these people who are trapped and forced/swayed to pay these charges.  Probably it is the lack of information about this type of scam and or they have done something that aligns with the demand to pay.  But whatever it is, thanks @OP in sharing this new scam strategy.

This days the more we try to find solutions to scam attempts the harder it seems to become, we face physical attacks from thiefs and we also face internet thiefs, ignoring the internet scammers is probably the only way one can beat their actions.

The fact that it comes with a kind of authority makes me feel it's probably going to work with some few people because once you get threatened with your family it becomes hard to ignore as the police advised but in whatever we do let's just keep our of reach of scammers by prioritising privacy of everything.

Really interesting, I like that the scammers are nice and only ask for $1950-2000!!! They are very generous and don't want to make their victims suffer too much :D.

Anyway, the natural reaction would be fear when an unknown person sends you a message with personal information about you, pictures of your house, etc., the victim would not think that it was taken from Google Maps or the Internet if he has not been in a similar situation before.

This method of scamming is much nicer than the ones I have heard about recently where young men break into homes and force victims to give them crypto-related data such as exchange passwords, wallet seeds, etc.

It’s just a simple scam, if someone takes the bait, they fall right into the trap. They’ve probably studied how much to ask for, just enough to seem affordable so people will pay quickly. The ones behind this are smart, like businessmen, so we need to be even smarter to avoid getting scammed.

It’s getting serious-----scams like this are literally leading to deaths, so I hope it never happens to us. Maybe the key is not to make our information too public, especially if we have crypto, because a lot of eyes are watching.

That’s a good suggestion...it's best to keep a low profile, especially if we have significant crypto holdings. Let those who brag do their thing, since some of them just want to attract people to invest so they can scam them. We don’t need to follow that path if it’s not our style.

The fact that they're using the same tactic as any blackmail out there that's much more banking on fear is probably the reason why it's so effective in getting these scammers what they want after all, every person out there has some kind of secret that embarrass them after all and I think that it will work on anyone, you just need the right triggers to scam someone. It's such a sad and angering thing for me that this is still happening right now but when you look at it this way, there's always the fact that malice in people will always be there no matter how much we want to deal with it to the point of eradication, being vigilant and practicing information security is probably your best bet on this kind of stuff.

I understand that it can be scary since the scammers know too much about the victim. But data like this can be found on the internet easily. So don’t immediately assume that these scammers have some kind of special or unique ability to incriminate you or put you in danger. If you really are that scared then go and report this not pay immediately.
Most likely it is old people who are easily scared and fooled by technology. No matter what your age is, we still should remain vigilant and educated about these kind of things.

If I will receive such email, I will also be feared and might have sent them some funds, but I will take some suggestions from other experts, like from this community first and I know I will be guided right and I will be safe. The bluff of Pegasus malware, which is Israeli spyware and it spys on your device either IOS or Android, is the latest news in Hezbullah you might have heard of where the pagers got destroyed remotely by pre installed viruses and the media is claiming Israel is behind them.

Point is such viruses can be really frightening, and a simple, non-tech savvy dude like me can easily fall prey to these phishing links but thanks for sharing it because now I won't fall prey to this scam in case I receive such mails. We all should not take quick actions to these emails, like AFAIK they can easily have done the harm if they have installed the Pegasus virus, as they already be knowing our seed phrases.

Especially when there are threats of bodily harm or something like that - I think it's natural for some people to be afraid. You're absolutely right - people need to be educated about scams that involve threats, they need to know what they should be able to do without worrying.

Some people may try to find a good solution by reporting it to the police - but if they panic and think the threat is real, then the damage will be done to them and the scammer will be happy about it. Scammers are really crazy sometimes and they will find the weak to prey on. Hopefully we and all users involved in this thread will be kept away from all forms of fraud attempts from irresponsible people.

There is another question: how can people who do not know about cryptocurrency pay the scammers what they ask for?

If we talk about where the scammers get their addresses and other things that should be related to confidentiality, then look at the data of Americans that are now being sold or have already been posted on the dark net to carry out such fraudulent operations.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/hackers-leak-27-billion-data-records-with-social-security-numbers/

Those criminal usually include guide how to buy Bitcoin and then send it to them. But looking at example of the email scam on https://nordvpn.com/blog/pegasus-email-scam/ (https://nordvpn.com/blog/pegasus-email-scam/) and https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/online-security/new-sextortion-scam-combines-stolen-data-to-target-victims-directly (https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/online-security/new-sextortion-scam-combines-stolen-data-to-target-victims-directly), this email scam doesn't include a guide.

And of course you should really be having that common sense on which this would really be primarily be needing up if we do tend to deal up with something. You could really tell that on how the heck people do really fall
unto these obvious scams on which if you do really look up closely or mind throughly on which it is really just that too obvious that they are really just that trying out to scam you. The bad thing on here is that if there
are really certain informations would really be that leaked out like your secret videos or any other things that you do really keep it as a secret or able to locked up some important files on your computer, then it would really be leading up no choice for you to but to pay up something. Email scams are already that long time busted but still surprisingly there were still people who do get victimized with these basic things.

This is why if you do really have some important files or even with your crypto wallets into your desktop or whatever files you do have then its always been that recommended that you shouldnt really be
careless on clicking up random links no matter what it is, as long you do know where's the source. Usually people do end up on such scenario or situation just because they are really that
too careless on clicking things up around and the moment that they are really that realizing that they are in danger then this is where they would be able to find out on what they had done earlier.

I know some of these type of scam attempts look potentially legitimate but you can usually always tell. Look deeper into the message, there’s usually some type of spelling mistakes or grammatical errors somewhere. I have to admit I have never & am extremely unlikely to ever fall for unsolicited email scams.

This kind of fraud is very simple and it seems impossible for us to believe in fraud like this, if someone is fooled by a motive like this I think he is a layman. Hopefully this information can help people who are new to Bitcoin. Whatever email is in our email inbox, we must understand from the email we receive if there is a fraudulent motive like this, it is better to press the "Report spam" menu as soon as possible and then delete the email.

It is okay to be scared if you receive this kind of email, but sending the blackmailer money is not a solution, sending them money just opens the door for them to continue asking you for more money, until you eventually give up, so it is better not to even start sending them money from the beginning. If i receive such as email, i would immediately delete it without responding to it and you should do the same too.

I was wondering the same thing: even if you have an email address made using the full first and last name, how do you know where that guy lives? My idea is that maybe they found some kind of database online with all these info, simply having an email address wouldn't help, it would be too generic. If there is a hack/leak from some website then it's easier to do.

Thanks for reminding us about this kind of scam there are so many unique ways to scam people now a days that is why we need to be more careful, we need to inform everyone about this scam to make them aware of it, most of thier victim is a newbie that has no experienced yet, i hope they will know or see this before its too late, it is a big frustration if we get scammed specially when the money is from our hard work so I think we need to double check every action we made using the internet.

Does that mean any untrustworthy service over the internet can be collecting user information such as their home and street addresses and then either using them to do such scams or selling them to third parties who are then doing all this? This is the reason why it's not good to share all your personal information with any website over the internet.

If not any other service or website, I'm pretty sure websites that conduct surveys, often providing money and incentives to people for completing surveys which sometimes require you to enter your personal information, are doing such things for sure. I have always thought that these services sell that information to third parties and that's how they earn money.

Knowing these are scams is one thing, but understanding that we shouldn't share our personal information everywhere online is much better.

I developed tough skin towards scams like this the day a stranger (scammer) sent me a private message asking for money to take my relative to the hospital immediately for he just got involved in an accident. I almost fell victim to this scam, at the end it turned out that no one was involved in an accident.

Now, I am very careful of the information I give out both online and offline. Bitcoin is supposed to protect our privacy and make it impossible for anyone to trace and steal our coins. But the kind of information we put out there will uncover us and make us vulnerable to these attacks. Sometimes we can't help it but share certain information about us online. To be on the safer side, we must avoid sending strangers bitcoins or fiat until we are strongly convinced that such a transaction is genuine.

Bitcoiners need to be extra careful because bitcoins sent to scammers are gone and gone for ever.

Some people doesn't have the idea of how these scammers operate and that's why they become victim. When some people receive mails, they can easily believe that it's a real mail because they don't have the idea that scammers have a way of stealing people's email. So, the victim will believe that the email is real since they know that they haven't shared their email with any body and by having such trust, they can become victims.

People just need to be careful and open their mind to learning and following up recent happening, so that they will learn from the experience of other people's mistake. I know I would have been victim to some situations if not for the fact that I have heard a similar story from a victim of that same situation.

 This is a concept that often occurs in the environment by giving a statement from them as fraudsters, they are good at finding loopholes to deceive someone, but in this case, it takes a lot of attention in handling this fraud that occurs, I myself have experienced this incident several times in the context of being done by calling, these perpetrators always use part of the family members to threaten us with their fraudulent concept.


 Be very careful in receiving messages from someone you don't know, even with an uncertain background, they are always targeting someone's assets or property including Bitcoin, always secure your Bitcoin from fraudulent actions and use a secret key that no one knows except you as the owner.

Okay, it's a scam, and the photos are collected through Google Maps and Street View. My question now is, how do they know your full name and address in the first place? Could it be due to a database leak from a service or platform that a user previously suggested? The article doesn't specify it, and it's not an unsignificant piece of information. Does anyone have more information about it? Having a random scammer email you with your personal details is quite serious; are we all going to ignore this and simply focus on ignoring them without sending them the money in Bitcoin?

Fun fact, not sure if that has been posted in this thread before, a popular scam baiter/scam warning video maker on youtube ( Pleasant Green ) just published a video about this exact scam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU_Sw0F4qsI&ab_channel=PleasantGreen

He very well explains how the scam works and how the scammers actually do this. It's a short and interesting watch, check it out.

Hmm, thanks bro! I'm not sure if this same topic is covered in the beginners & Help section or if this is the same one I'm talking about, anyway sticking to the topic as I've made a reply on a similar topic not sure this really makes us think why privacy is important so that you can protect your identity get rest assured from such type of scams. I think such kind of emails should be reported so that any kind of legal action can taken against them, but what's the problem is in most countries the policy regarding the crypto market is not clear so people feel unsafe while talking about it on a legal forum.

Haha what about those daily vloggers especially from India-Pakistan they are in big trouble, as they sell their privacy for some bucks.

There are actually many ways, though they weren't mentioned in the news article. If we look back at previous data hacks, these often happen through gathering information from social media (some users share their full details), data breaches available on the dark web, which isn't new, phishing attacks, or even public records. It’s also possible someone on the inside leaked the information for the money.

It's weird that people are still doing this kind of thing, becoming a victim because of suspicious links being clicked is so 2010s kind of hacks and attacks so it's really weird that people are still doing this kind of thing. I've heard someone say this thing about cybersecurity, if something isn't repeated at about 3 months interval like a routine, it's most likely going to be forgotten and taken for granted and so I guess with less and less people becoming a victim of this kind of scams, it inadvertently cause people to not get cautious about this kind of thing. Maybe stop going to porn sites and other types of websites that's always infested with suspicious links and maybe there's a change that would happen to this kind of attacks and probably even less victims.

It's the same old "I have hacked your PC and recorded you watching porn" email which threatens victims. It has evolved over time to try and get victims to pay:
1. First it was just the same email, copy pasted and mass emailed to everyone.
2. Next they added the first name of the victim, associated with the email.
3. Next they added any historic compromised passwords from breached password lists, associated with the email.
4. Now, they are searching for the address associated with breached accounts with the email of the victim, and including google maps reference.

They haven't done anything, it's just a scam to get victims to pay.

Sometimes they even sent their own crypto to the blackmail crypto address to make the victim feel like others have paid as it is a real threat.

They can finds your full name by searching through Internet and even they can buy the data from the dark web. We maybe don't know how they can get the data but when we upload our credentials to the Internet, our data can not be 100% safe. We can only be careful when we wants to submit our data through Internet.

Hackers and scammers can also use our social medias to find the data and they can pretending to ask for a friendship to us. If we realize that can be a way for them to trick us, we must leave that and not take anything. We must always be careful when any people who we don't know so we can prevent the scams.

Someone can sell the data for the money especially if he have so many information and credentials from people. We can only prevent without knowing if our data is safe.

It’s possibly the scammers got the victim’s data from sites that they were registered on. Trading of users data is very popular in the darkweb so it shouldn’t be hard for the scammers to get hold of that. If I ever receive such emails, I would definitely ignore it. Why would I send the scammers money? There is no real threat in the email, unless I’m on the run from the government or loan sharks, I wouldn’t pay anyone nor to disclose my home address.

For me the safest and easiest way is just to ignore emails, don't need to open or read them if you don't really know the sender.
Also always check the sender's email it might just be a dummy acct using a similar email of someone you know, check on even little details like special characters or misspelled names.

That was the advice from the authorities, but many people still fall for it, especially those who are not fully aware of this kind of scam. It's crucial that authorities continue to remind and educate people, as scams happen worldwide every year. And since this type of scam has been successful for the scammers, it’s likely that others will use the same tactics in different countries. And before that will happen, the government has to make an effort to made aware their people about this.

There are millions of leaked information available online. Those information were leaked due to server breach multiple times on the internet. This is pretty much old scam method but this time they added some information's and photos. People should know that these information can be collected from your social media which you shared. There is nothing to be worry about.

This incidents remind again why privacy is important. Think twice before you post your photos online and other information you post. Most of us shares real information on Facebook and anyone can collect those information from our social media account and threat us.

There is also a software for it, that could predict people's email using first and last name. Although, it's not always accurate, but the premium ones do make out some valuable information if appropriate details are provided. However, the process for this type of scam wouldn't be that hectic on the attacker, but the pressure it places on victims is quite massive that most recipients will get scared.

I mean how they're able to trace down to people's home address, then use google map to frame the location, is enough for victims to raise alarm. In addition, the police should not just tag it a normal bitcoin scam, it's quite a loophole they need to question, for the safety of citizens.

Old timers will not fall on this, but unfortunately there are new people will came out to the scene that might fall from this classic scam schemes. That's the reason why this attempts will always show up since they know they can still fish innocent people from those scam methods they use. Its important for us to be aware about the risk of sharing our identity online since this is one of those issues we might encounter in future. Also people nowadays should try to educate their selves about other potential risk they might encounter online so these type of attempts would not scare them and they can learn to ignore any random mails they receive online.

Privacy is really important that's why we need to be cautious enough to know first the reputation of the site we are sending our personal data's since its important to know if they are good to handle this kind of document and will not sell this to any random online criminals.

Unfortunately, most of us does not really care about our privacy. If I talk about myself, I have social media account where I have uploaded my photos willingly. Nobody forced me to share real information online. I shared where I studies, wherr I go from time to time, I posted pictures with my friends. I belive the scammers wont be able to trick me because I know how their scam works. But, most of the people's don’t know. Imagine a scammer created a dip fake video of a girl and then started to ask for money and blackmail her, there is nothing she can do. But, in this cases, they should avoid reply to the scammers as if they did not even see the message of the scammer.

Actually, things like this are a common way that fraudsters do but because the thinking of some people is sometimes always easy to manipulate so things like this even though in terms of the mode and method used templates but in the end not a few people are trapped with trivial things like this.
But it cannot be denied that their target scammers are definitely those who are not too familiar with bitcoin, beginners and parents whose thoughts are always positive in responding to a condition. It was actually well utilized by the perpetrators especially when their convincing speech techniques made the victims quite easy to trick.

I have felt in such a situation even though I was not deceived because I just wanted to see and communicate with the scammers but it cannot be denied that the seduction in their scam trap is really very good so even though the method is quite common but there will definitely be many who are tempted and deceived.

I think prior to us joining the crypto sphere, we might not want to care our privacy, but now it's totally different, maybe some of are not that active in social media because we are afraid that there will be footprints that this cyber criminal can follow, hence, we might fell for this kind of trick.

But if we did then the only weapon on our side is to educate ourselves with this kind of attacks and not to trust anyone online. And as the advancement of AI, we should really be careful as they can copy and mimic even our love ones and they can used it against us.

With someone's address attached to the email, it becomes very convincing. Getting the details from Google map is not just clear to me because it is when I share my location that Google map will become useful to anyone. Apart from social media, I don't know how easy it is for the scammers to harvest that much personal information of people to be able to identify their house address as well as have their email address. I remember facebook have a feature that unable users put their location at every point in time unless one choses to disable that from being shared to the public. With such feature allowed, scammers can easily get the frequent location of their user and from their get all the details they might need to send out this kind of email.

Totally agree.
It's our responsibility to stay vigilant and teach each other how to not to fall for this kind of attack and continue staying fine while our funds are protected and with us.
The Internet may be a shady place, and we shouldn't forget about it.

Unfortunately we do not really care until we become a victim or our closest people fall for these scams. I have been watching some casino ads on Facebook lately where some popular celebrities asking people to make a deposit on those platforms. Even they copied the real voice with AI. I don't know how it even possible. If someone does not look carefully, they won't be able to understand that it was made by AI.

To be honest, I did not cared about my privacy as well. Lately I started to understand that everything can be used against me as a weapon. We have to think twice before we share a picture of ourself, our loved ones. But when I will suggest the same thing to my friends, I guess they will laugh at me.

The internet is shady place and it is accessible for everybody and it's our ultimate responsibility to ensure we're grabbing positive information that will bring growth to our daily lives and activities anticipated. Perhaps there are more scamming projects nowadays and most of us fall for them so cheaply. It's annoying to watch how phisphing mails would easily convince crypto trader or investor, to send bitcoins, it's totally out of line if you ask me.

The benefits of the internet are numerous as are the risks especially in the crypto world which is very prone to scams or such. Therefore it is very important for us before entering the crypto world to learn about the risks involved so that scams like the one mentioned by the OP can be avoided. Because the worst of the crypto mania as far as I know is the emergence of an industry consisting of various types of spam bots that are the most terrible through connection negligence and the most terrible is through phisphing emails even every day fraudsters send various things to our emails, some are phisphing or hackers.

To avoid all that, the point is we should not accept incoming emails and often read crypto information to avoid criminal gangs, either from fraudsters or whatever when we make transactions.

The first time my employer use Google image capturing to  get photo of my current location I was mavelled and if not that he already told me about it, I will have believed that someone that is physically present took that picture, and that is what will happen to most victims in this scam case, and just as mentioned already this type of scam will not last long before it get exposed just as it has become because the information that will be email are easily verified and image to discover as not real Image unless may a very few victim will actually fall for this scam at first.

Just like blackmailing someone about his or her nudes, the easiest way to get them off your back is by letting know that they can release the video or pictures and f they really are in possession of it, most of those blackmailers have no evidence and just tricks to scam their victims.

Generally, scammers doesn't have only one target, their target is everyone in the crypto space. For example, when a Fisherman cast his net into the sea, any fish that is caught in the net becomes the victim. That's how scammers are, they are looking for victims every where, no matter the profit they get (whether small or big) they are not complaining but will keep looking for more victim.

People who can scam someone will end up scamming them if they find the chance. The idea of feeling guilty means that if you have that then you wouldn't scam anyone to begin with and if you do not have anything like that then you are going to end up with something that is taking a while and we shouldn't really reach out to do anything at all. I think the best thing to do right now would be just focusing on what we can do with something we have, and if scammers are doing this good then it means we need to teach people more about scams as well.

I mean this one obviously only can fool the people who are too noobs in the crypto world or even online so it would be very important to figure out a way to make sure we are telling everyone to do fine and just have like some scam type of stuff webpage where we explain how scams work and just make it go viral so that everyone would be able to read and protect themselves and whenever they get anything like this they can check the page and see the scam.

These kind of scams work when targeting as many people as possible, as even if only 1% of the people that received this email were fooled, if tens of thousands received the same email then the profits generated by the scammer can still be quite significant, and the fact that it has a picture of your home makes the while situation way more real for the potential victims and this could make this particular scam way more effective than what it could otherwise be.

The problem are the leaks of personal data executed by thieves who work inside companies which own your personal informations. There is a candidate running for mayor of the biggest city from my country who was part of a scheme like that during his early professional career. He worked for a bank, and at some point he was selling personal data from customers to a criminal group.

Nowadays he is a millionaire idolized by a considerable portion of the local population, surpassing 20% of the potential votes for the upcoming election, as inquiries predict. It's normal here for scammers and thieves to have their fan clubs, though.

Regards such schemes, I conclude it must be really profitable, because as you can see, the man got millionaire in a decade or so. For those who put money above everything, I think it's not a hard decision for them to get involved in this activity, considering the potential internet has nowadays to reach a massive group of potential victims simultaneously and anonymously.