Bitcoin Forum

Apparently somebody sent messages to businesses threatening to post negative reviews on Yelp, complaints to the BBB, and mess with their phone systems if the businesses didn't send him/her one BTC by a certain deadline and three BTC after that! http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikamorphy/2014/06/29/you-know-bitcoin-is-mainstream-when-your-extortionist-requests-it/

Problem is, there are those who will fall for the scam.................................

wow. gotta hate internet trolls.  >:(

That's why you should get multiple reviews from multiple sources before you make an opinion about a site or service because competition will do that to you too.

I doubt any business would fall for that since they already receive false complaints, bad reviews, negative reps etc from the new competitors who pay people to do just that.

They do. Such scams are a big deal for the scammers.

All they need is 1-3% response to get wealthy and they send millions of emails each day.

Scam? This is exactly what the IRS does.

Those extortion letters are nearly identical to an IRS letter in terms of font, wording, overall design, as well as the tactics.

Wow really? but don't these businesses who pay to these scammers realize that as soon as they run outta money they'll contact them again and ask for more?

Generally they don't as this is a "hit and run" scam.

I think you would be surprised. A lot of companies do pay off criminals like this, I know of a couple places I've worked at over the years that have done such.  The thing is they never say it publicly so we are unaware of how often companies pay people off.

While I don't doubt that there are shady companies who pay to give compettitors a bad review, I don't think its THAT common. Typically if a restaurant is good it gets good reviews.  Also these extortionists are threatening more than just bad yelp reviews....prank calls, phone ddosing, false orders, swating, calls to the BBB, etc etc.  All of that combined can certainly be enough to convince a business owner to fork over $600 to make it go away.

A competitor paying for bad reviews isn't nearly as much of a threat. They are limited in what they can do without breaking the law and getting in serious trouble. Criminals aren't afraid to break laws so they have much more options at their disposal.

This is true.  Most of these are hit and runs, and for good reason.


I extort $600 from you, eventually you move on and forget about it. As does law enforcement.  I extort you for $600, then come back from more, then come back for more and then come back for more.  It only increases unwanted attention on me and increases my odds of getting caught.  It's better to get some money from you once and then you forget about it and move on with your life, and i move on to hitting new targets.

When I say "I" i don't mean me personally of course,  I mean criminals.

People are less likely to go to the police on one scam and more likely to go to police on multiple scams.  Get the one and move on is how the better extornists operate.

This is not technically a scam. Companies' reputations are one of it's most valuable assets and it makes sense to pay to have their reputations protected when there is a legitimate dispute.

What these people are doing is very illegal, and is certainly extortion.

I would consider a scam to be when someone tricks others into sending them money under false pretenses. IMO this is not what this is.

IDK if the purps will follow through on their threats of trying to damage their reputations.