How private is a Bitcoin account ?

[johne53]

Since the beginning of 2019 I've been getting regular emails from some idiot who makes all kinds of threats if I don't deposit $1,000 into his Bitcoin account within 48 hours. I just ignore them but they arrive like clockwork (pretty much every week) so obviously, they're becoming extremely irritating. He's very careful to not expose any info that would help me identify him (e.g. his email address) and the only info he makes known to me is his Bitcoin account number - except that the account number changes with each new email.

So I'm guessing it's possible to set up 'temporary' accounts with Bitcoin which only last for a few days and aren't traceable?? Nevertheless, this person is a blackmailer and I'd like to report him the relevant authorities.

So what's the situation regarding Bitcoin accounts? If I forwarded one of his emails to Bitcoin, would they be able to identify this person from his Bitcoin account number?

[1715230117]

1715230117

[BitcoinGirl.Club]

Since the beginning of 2019 I've been getting regular emails from some idiot who makes all kinds of threats if I don't deposit $1,000 into his Bitcoin account within 48 hours. I just ignore them but they arrive like clockwork (pretty much every week) so obviously, they're becoming extremely irritating. He's very careful to not expose any info that would help me identify him (e.g. his email address) and the only info he makes known to me is his Bitcoin account number - except that the account number changes with each new email.

So I'm guessing it's possible to set up 'temporary' accounts with Bitcoin which only last for a few days and aren't traceable?? Nevertheless, this person is a blackmailer and I'd like to report him the relevant authorities.

So what's the situation regarding Bitcoin accounts? If I forwarded one of his emails to Bitcoin, would they be able to identify this person from his Bitcoin account number?

I think you have no clue about bitcoins. Whoever is this guy, he is trying to mislead you. Bitcoin is not an account. The proper term for it is wallet.

A wallet has addresses. Every address has it's private key and a public key.

You do not show or reveal the private key to anyone but the public key.

If anyone wants to pay you then they will send the bitcoin to your address.

A Bitcoin transection is pseudo anonymous by the way.

[LoyceV]

emails from some idiot who makes all kinds of threats if I don't deposit $1,000 into his Bitcoin account within 48 hours

It's just spam, I receive those emails too on many different email addresses. Click "report spam", and forget about them. All claims about having your personal information are 99.9999% fake.

The spammer only uses Bitcoin as an easy way to collect money from naive victims. They're improving, the emails are now even translated to my local language.

Welcome to Bitcointalk though!

[StackGambler]

So what's the situation regarding Bitcoin accounts? If I forwarded one of his emails to Bitcoin, would they be able to identify this person from his Bitcoin account number?

"Bitcoin" is not a single entity. Bitcoin is a decentralized system, so no, that's not possible. Now, if the spammer is dumb enough to use a wallet like Coinbase or Poloniex that automatically empties out into a central hot wallet, then you can identify his service and contact the provider for more info. However, most scammers tend to use fresh addresses and tumble their bitcoins in mixers or cash out immediately via the dark web or some other underground means.

[johne53]

Thanks for the prompt reply guys and yes - I should've used the term wallet, rather than account.

I do realise that it's spam, of course (even just reading the emails, it's obvious he's making it all up...) but it's still blackmail nevertheless - and I'm sure he won't be just targeting me.!

I just wondered if there was someone I could report it to.

[LoyceV]

I just wondered if there was someone I could report it to.

The basics of spam didn't change when it switched from Viagra to blackmail, there's no central authority on the internet to report it to, other than have spam filters do their thing.

[Lucius]

~snip~

You can report such spam to FTC, any there you can also read some very helpful tips and instructions how to avoid or reduce the amount of spam. Since this is US based agency, maybe report will not work for you, but it is worth a try.

Perhaps the best way to get rid of spam is changing your e-mail address. One address should be only for friends&family, and other for crypto related things. You can even report such things to police in your country, at the end this is blackmail, no matter how it may seem unimportant / harmless in this case.

[Artemis3]

Since the beginning of 2019 I've been getting regular emails from some idiot who makes all kinds of threats if I don't deposit $1,000 into his Bitcoin account within 48 hours. I just ignore them but they arrive like clockwork (pretty much every week) so obviously, they're becoming extremely irritating. He's very careful to not expose any info that would help me identify him (e.g. his email address) and the only info he makes known to me is his Bitcoin account number - except that the account number changes with each new email.

So I'm guessing it's possible to set up 'temporary' accounts with Bitcoin which only last for a few days and aren't traceable?? Nevertheless, this person is a blackmailer and I'd like to report him the relevant authorities.

So what's the situation regarding Bitcoin accounts? If I forwarded one of his emails to Bitcoin, would they be able to identify this person from his Bitcoin account number?

Even i have gotten such spam, and its probably not even directed for you, but copy pasted to a long list of purchased email addresses from the dark web. Like any spammer they are aiming for a very low percentage of victims to fall prey of fear. Heck at 1k even a single victim could probably pay back their "investment". You can report it, but its probably from one of those countries "uncooperative" to international authorities...

If your email client has some sort of Bayesian filter it should go straight to the spam folder without bothering you again. Email needs spam filtering.

Bitcoin is no central authority, the whole point is that it is decentralized. You don't have "accounts", you can make a wallet and nobody will ever know until you use it, and even after that proving that it belongs to a specific individual can be difficult if enough precautions are made (such as using an address only once). I doubt the spammer bothered to use distinct addresses on each spam mail you got, did he? nah.

[hyunee]

Since the beginning of 2019 I've been getting regular emails from some idiot who makes all kinds of threats if I don't deposit $1,000 into his Bitcoin account within 48 hours. I just ignore them but they arrive like clockwork (pretty much every week) so obviously, they're becoming extremely irritating.

You should just block the email address of that person. It does irritate a person if you are just receiving the same type of email over and over again. Here is the link to block the email address if you are using gmail.

He's very careful to not expose any info that would help me identify him (e.g. his email address) and the only info he makes known to me is his Bitcoin account number - except that the account number changes with each new email.

I guess that this is a bitcoin address? Am I right? Where is the site you exposed your email? You should be deleting that so that you might not get such emails.

Bitcoin transactions are anonymous. If I am right that you refer the bitcoin number as bitcoin address, then bitcoin address are just what appears on the blockchain.

[johne53]

Where is the site you exposed your email? You should be deleting that so that you might not get such emails.

Generally speaking the only sites where I expose my email address are ones like this (i.e. forum boards where an email address is needed for issuing notifications).

Anyway... in Viagra's defence, it can be annoying to get emails offering to sell you stuff (esp. when you don't need it !!!  ) but it isn't technically illegal - whereas what this guy's doing is blackmail (which very much IS illegal). So if there was any way to report him to someone, I wouldn't hesitate to do it...

[DreamStage]

Bitcoins is the name called for the cryptocurrency created by Satoshi Nakamoto.

Has nothing to do with Accounts like Login and Password.

The only possible information he can hack from you is if you provide any additional information regarding your blockchain account.

If he logs in your blockchain then he can use your addresses as much as he like and for example send the money you have into your blockchain to his addresses

[Lucius]

So if there was any way to report him to someone, I wouldn't hesitate to do it...

Did you read my post? There are ways to report it if it really disturbs you, it's just a question of how much you have the will to deal with such things. Since it is a internet / e-mail blackmail, it is highly likely that a person behind it uses some methods to hide their true IP address. At best, what you could expect would be to provider blocked that e-mail address.

If by some chance, you managed to find out the right IP address of that spamer and his ISP, you can report them to his ISP abuse service.

[johne53]

Thanks Lucius - like you mentioned, the FTC's jurisdiction is as a US based agency so it won't be relevant in my case (I'm UK based).

Incidentally... although this forum does notify me about replies here, it seems to bunch them all up and send just one bunch each day. Is there a way to get immediate notifications? (I can't see anything obvious in my profile preferences).