[2018-01-27] FBI Warns About Bitcoin Murder Scam

[moriskarlov]

A new extortion scheme has caught the attention of the FBI in which a Bitcoin scam is undertaken through an emailed death threat.

There are lots of ways that crooks try to extort money from their victims via the internet. Some of their tricks of the trade include sending infected emails or remote hacking. However, a new extortion attempt is proving to be downright scary and has attracted the attention of the FBI. Basically, the extortion attempt is a Bitcoin scam in which the victim is threatened with murder unless they pay up.

SCARED FOR YOUR LIFE

One victim told her story to the media. She said that she received an email that said, “I will be short. I’ve got an order to kill you.” Her only recourse to supposedly save her life was to pay the would-be-assassin $2,800 in Bitcoin.

Needless to say, the victim was scared to hell by this murderous Bitcoin scam. She told the media:

I knew no one was tracking me. But I found myself as I was on my way to work looking around. Are any cars following me? Does anyone look suspicious?

ONLINE DEATH THREATS NOT UNCOMMON

While one would think that such an incident would be rare, it’s actually more common than you think. The victim contacted the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center over the death threat.

About the agency’s website, FBI agent Laura Eimiller says:

We receive an average of 800 complaints a day in the United States on that site. We believe it represents about 15 percent of the scams that are actually taking place, so it is heavily underreported.

Agent Eimiller goes on to say that if you’re online, chances are that you will be victimized multiple times with various scams and threats. She adds that the current Bitcoin scam involving death threats is easy money for criminals as they rely upon volume.

She states:

If only 1 percent of people send money to them, there’s no overhead for them. That is money in the bank.

Police authorities say that even educated professionals have been lured in by the emails. The reason being that the emails containing the death threats have been carefully constructed. In short, this isn’t your old Nigerian scam email. Plus, having a death threat show up in your inbox is enough to freak any sane person out.

While the internet does allow us instant communication and access across the world, it does open us up to attacks from bad guys just using a keyboard. The best thing to do if you get such a murderous Bitcoin scam email is to not answer it. Contact the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center and register a complaint.

http://bitcoinist.com/fbi-warns-about-bitcoin-murder-scam/

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[BitHodler]

I can understand her concerns, but these things aren't really new. I remember TV coverage of how similar emails and even phone calls have been attacking random people to pay a certain amount of money through western union.

Crypto makes things a lot more easy for these con artists to ruin people's lives, but we don't need to exaggerate the situation further than needed. It's a common practice to extort people off their Bitcoins.

The most recent examples I know of is that mobile phone carriers started sending emails to people that they are late with payments, and that the only way to avoid higher cost is to deposit that amount in Bitcoin.

Discard and delete is the best and only way of dealing with these mails.

[Coffee135]

Such cases have always been. Criminals that never require repayment in Fiat? Why a ransom demand in Fiat is fine but the ransom in bitcoin this sensation? It seems to me that such statements of the FBI are the elements of the information war against bitcoin. The government is slowly preparing the public opinion to the fact that bitcoin is evil and should be banned.

[Slow death]

I can understand her concerns, but these things aren't really new. I remember TV coverage of how similar emails and even phone calls have been attacking random people to pay a certain amount of money through western union.

I got a lot of emails from these scammers and the most unbelievable was months later when I read that the FBI had arrested the scammers, Mr. johnson who in the email posed as a lawyer of the wester union and Mr. Ellen posing as a millionaire lady who had amassed a £35,000 wealth and who would transfer it to me if I sent $350 per wester union to unlock in the London bank were so ugly pictures handcuffed by the FBI that I could not even contain myself from laughing

The government is slowly preparing the public opinion to the fact that bitcoin is evil and should be banned.

bitcoin worth more than $10,000 already it was expected that there would be a lot of noise because of that price

One victim told her story to the media. She said that she received an email that said, “I will be short. I’ve got an order to kill you.” Her only recourse to supposedly save her life was to pay the would-be-assassin $2,800 in Bitcoin.

I'm sorry but here it seems a very exaggerated story.

[darkangel11]

One victim told her story to the media. She said that she received an email that said, “I will be short. I’ve got an order to kill you.” Her only recourse to supposedly save her life was to pay the would-be-assassin $2,800 in Bitcoin.

I'm sorry but here it seems a very exaggerated story.

I couldn't agree more. I'm yet to receive a death threat over email, but that wouldn't be something that I'd lose sleep over. I mean i've been threatened multiple times on the Internet and I never cared to report it anywhere, they don't have my personal details anyway. If I got a similar email I'd treat it like spam, especially that it looked generic. They didn't send her any pictures of her, her family, house, car, nothing. If you got a PM from me saying that i got a contract to kill you, would you start looking over your shoulder or press "report" and forget about it? People these days are crazy. No wonder the suicide rates are over the roof.

[J. Cooper]

One victim told her story to the media. She said that she received an email that said, “I will be short. I’ve got an order to kill you.” Her only recourse to supposedly save her life was to pay the would-be-assassin $2,800 in Bitcoin.

I'm sorry but here it seems a very exaggerated story.

I couldn't agree more. I'm yet to receive a death threat over email, but that wouldn't be something that I'd lose sleep over. I mean i've been threatened multiple times on the Internet and I never cared to report it anywhere, they don't have my personal details anyway. If I got a similar email I'd treat it like spam, especially that it looked generic. They didn't send her any pictures of her, her family, house, car, nothing. If you got a PM from me saying that i got a contract to kill you, would you start looking over your shoulder or press "report" and forget about it? People these days are crazy. No wonder the suicide rates are over the roof.

I don't really feel like the story itself is exaggerated. You need to understand that a lot of people are still very new to the internet, which makes them very vulnerable to a variety of scams. This doesn't have to mean they're guilible or anything (probably a little bit but still) often times they just have the misconception that most of the people are genuine/serious. You also have to think of the emotional factor such an email could have on someone, especially an elderly person. It would disallow rational thinking.