Scam Emails requesting Bitcoin.

[Ratters]

Just wanted to make people aware.

This is usually a very simple/poorly delivered scam attempt and is nothing new but I can see from the BTC address that someone has paid them today.

The scam starts from a data breach where your email address been exposed (much like the breach here on BTT) but there have been many for my email address. Check here. haveibeenpwned.com/

They then send you an email appearing to be from yourself, it wasn't, it was just spoofed to look that way. Check your outbox.

They will say some crazy things about what they will do, they may even try to give the email some credibility by disclosing a password that you use/have used in the past (this was also obtained in the data breach). If this is the case then stop using that password and change it anywhere you have used it previously.

Finally they will set a deadline and ask you to pay BTC to the provided address. (Don't!)

Like I said, many of my emails have been caught in data breaches so I get a lot of spam and emails like this. What made this one stand out was it was the first time they had been clever enough to spoof the senders address and secondly, because I am into BTC I always check the address for a balance. I have never seen one with an active balance before. The third interesting thing was that they had been paid today, the same day I got my email. 19WDuugpByHmmWxPQRjT61Jpb6fcJfHrqt

I know this sort of scam goes on all the time and I would hope we are all aware of things like this but unfortunately someone was caught out today. I hope it wasn't one of us.

I hope this helps at least one person.

Stay safe out there

Rgds

Ratters

[1714506051]

1714506051

[1714506051]

1714506051

[1714506051]

1714506051

[yahoo62278]

Never pay any sort of extortion attempt. If you pay it once, they'll probably keep going and look for a 2nd or 3rd or 4th payment.

[ScamViruS]

I also get a lot of spam emails in my email every day, since I am aware enough about such scams, I have managed to stay away from these scams till now. Currently, the personal data of crypto users has been stolen from many big companies, and scammers are using that data to target crypto users. And after seeing these activities, it shows why not to use the same password while registering in all the websites.

I hope your warning will be helpful for newbie crypto users to protect themselves from such scams.

[albon]

Someone sent 0.019 BTC to the scammer's address. Some people may feel fear and concern immediately upon reading one of these extortion messages, which may contain some of the private information of the person who received the message. The person being extorted may make a big mistake by sending his Bitcoin to the scammer in hopes that the scammer will leave him alone. However, I agree with Yahoo that the solution is for the person not to send his Bitcoin and to completely ignore the extortion message so as not to respond to the message and give it any importance.

Thank you, OP, for this valuable topic.

[logfiles]

I receive similar emails now and then because my email address got exposed at least once in a data breach. One is funny, they even went as far as claiming they had my little dirty secrets they would expose to the public if I didn't send the Bitcoins (probably related to nudity or unwanted multiple affairs that could ruin my marriage)   

Some sort of false blackmail. Unsuspecting newbies call fall for such traps. It looks like the address has received another Bitcoin transaction.

[TheUltraElite]

Almost everyone of us have had their email addresses sold to spammers and that means the routine of deleting that bunch of spam emails every once a while.

Anything I see that is relating to coins or airdrops, I instantly delete without giving it a second look.  By far I came to know that I have a number of Ethereum freely floating for claiming somewhere out there are number of expensive phones and cars and some missed deliveries. Like WTF?

For us seasoned users, these scams might seem laugh-worthy, but for many these are scary and they need to learn how to face these.
OP is a very old user of this forum, good to see them back online.

[ABCbits]

Like I said, many of my emails have been caught in data breaches so I get a lot of spam and emails like this. What made this one stand out was it was the first time they had been clever enough to spoof the senders address and secondly, because I am into BTC I always check the address for a balance. I have never seen one with an active balance before. The third interesting thing was that they had been paid today, the same day I got my email. 19WDuugpByHmmWxPQRjT61Jpb6fcJfHrqt

It's also worth to mention if you search that Bitcoin address on google, it's already reported under reason blackmail, sextortion or RAT with fake/vague claim. So IMO it's weird email you received isn't filtered automatically by your email provider.

[Ratters]

I hope your warning will be helpful for newbie crypto users to protect themselves from such scams.

This is what I hope this post achieves.

Thank you, OP, for this valuable topic.

Thank you so much, I hope it is valuable to at least one person.

It looks like the address has received another Bitcoin transaction.

I saw this too, very sad to see.

OP is a very old user of this forum, good to see them back online.

Thank you, it's good to be back. I will always regret leaving Crypto when I did. I hope I can be of assistance here again.

Rgds

Ratters

[tabas]

Typically, with these scam email attempts aside from deleting them I, I also block them so that I won't receive the same email from that the same person. But it can't be stopped because it's going to be nonstop attempts and they'll use different emails so if the pattern is the same, delete and block them tirelessly. And next time, be careful with any website that you sign up because many of them are just collecting the registration details and sell it and much worse if they expose it to the public.

I will always regret leaving Crypto when I did. I hope I can be of assistance here again.

Everyone is going to be happy to help you out just ask and wait eventually, you'll get other members address to your concern as long as the details are there. But with your account older than most of us here, I think it is you that might give us some more info and share some experience. 

[Ratters]

Everyone is going to be happy to help you out just ask and wait eventually, you'll get other members address to your concern as long as the details are there. But with your account older than most of us here, I think it is you that might give us some more info and share some experience. 

Thanks for the kind words.

They then send you an email appearing to be from yourself, it wasn't, it was just spoofed to look that way. Check your outbox.

I just wanted to make people aware that by "spoofed" I mean that the sender address wasn't just masked like hkopwefml@ieokmnjndhjemdx.net and made to look like me, we have all seen these pretending to be from a reputable company but a quick hover will tell you the real sender. This email was actually from MY address, hover brought up my avatar.

Clever really, scary but clever.

Stay safe.

[lovesmayfamilis]

Clever really, scary but clever.

Stay safe.

Yes, you are right. They manipulate the fact that a person sees an email address that is very similar to his own, realizing that the letter could have been sent from his computer, as well as several little things that most people may have a coincidence with.
I found a good article regarding the letter, probably very similar to what the OP received. It contains an example of everything that scammers can write and how to counteract them. I don’t think it’s worth copying everything here; you can always read it yourself.

https://www.myantispyware.com/2024/02/07/i-recorded-you-email-scam-what-to-do-if-youre-targeted/

However, so that you don't feel afraid that strangers might be using your computer with you, be sure that you don't do anything that might make you doubtful, and don't travel to places where RAT software might come from.
Turn off the camera from the computer when there is no need to use it. You can also seal the laptop camera and turn off the microphone. And yes, Linux will still be a better defender than the leaky Windows system, which recently turned out to be very easy to break by changing the date to 9999. And there are plenty of such holes in Windows.

[Doan9269]

Thanks for this vital information on scam, we need to pay in more attention to the things we engage doing while online, the sites we visits and even what we download, scammers are lurking around the internet to take advantage of these things and use them against us, we should limit or stop the exposure we give to ourselves on the social media, revealing our identify, email, login credentials and so on, once they have a single entry like this, it leads to opening of other doors for them to use in attacking us when we lest expect.

[Ratters]

Sadly 0.16428665 BTC sent now.

[robelneo]

Sadly 0.16428665 BTC sent now.

This is the email associated with the Bitcoin address, it's a very similar kind of email I received some four years ago, but I know its a lie and a scam attempt I'm not using a camera on my desktop and I never do the thing that he was accusing me of.

The address has a lot of reports, this type of email is called email spoofing and unfortuntely so many innocent fall into this without doing research this is how scammers are doing this thing.

Why Am I Getting Spam From My Own Email Address?

[pinggoki]

Never pay any sort of extortion attempt. If you pay it once, they'll probably keep going and look for a 2nd or 3rd or 4th payment.

Exactly, that's how they do it with a lot of these scams, once they know that you can be ran over and they can easily get more money from you, they're definitely going to try again, basically paying them once will make them hold you by the balls. This was taught in one of our cybersecurity course in college, you got your computer infected by a ransomware, don't pay them, just learn to back up your files and move on because the moment you pay them, they'll just come back again after some time.

[Nwada001]

Exactly, that's how they do it with a lot of these scams, once they know that you can be ran over and they can easily get more money from you, they're definitely going to try again, basically paying them once will make them hold you by the balls. This was taught in one of our cybersecurity course in college, you got your computer infected by a ransomware, don't pay them, just learn to back up your files and move on because the moment you pay them, they'll just come back again after some time.

This is almost a month old now and far gone. The OP did not come back to update the thread if, after the payment that was sent to the scammer, the scammer requested another payment again or not, or if he/she really made another payment. 
 
One thing about all this scam is that they don't actually have the data they claim they have about the victim; they just use random mail to check who will fall prey to their scam. I pity the OP, on the other hand, as he might have acted due to fear of getting his data exposed online.

[ScamViruS]

Exactly, that's how they do it with a lot of these scams, once they know that you can be ran over and they can easily get more money from you, they're definitely going to try again, basically paying them once will make them hold you by the balls. This was taught in one of our cybersecurity course in college, you got your computer infected by a ransomware, don't pay them, just learn to back up your files and move on because the moment you pay them, they'll just come back again after some time.

Since they send emails to a specific account holder in a targeted manner, once that account holder sends money, they will target him again and again in various ways. This is the character of scammers. And this is why it is important for crypto users to have knowledge about cyber security, because the main target of scammers is crypto users. I always use my secondary email address on various websites and scammers flood my inbox by sending such emails. So those who work online and need to create their accounts on various websites, there is a high chance of their personal data being leaked and that's why never trust such emails.

[robelneo]

They are not only targeting individuals but also website owners, they use the contact form of the email and claim that they have hacked their database and all its contacts and contents and will only release if they pay a specific amount, but if you looked on your database you'll see that it's intact and there are no logs from another IP.

These people are annoying they want to make quick bucks I believe this is a big syndicate, there are a lot of reports of syndicates scamming individuals and companies and our authorities have raided some of them.

[BitcoinGirl.Club]

Never pay any sort of extortion attempt. If you pay it once, they'll probably keep going and look for a 2nd or 3rd or 4th payment.

I would like to have a chat with the stupid who have paid such email sender LOL
Do we have any between us? 😂

Sadly 0.16428665 BTC sent now.

Total received   ‎0.19651872
The first transaction received to this address is on 7th February. In less than 2 months the scammer made $13,740
Sadly it seems most of the crypto users spend their time on porn. They also have no idea how to secure their wallets too.

[mahaveer96]

Thanks for letting us know. Many people try to use scams as a way of profit, and sadly, many succeed. I am aware of what is happening on the internet, so I check all the emails I receive using the verify.email service. But I am concerned about other people because many people nowadays trust everything they read or see on the internet, and they can easily get caught in a trap. Let's hope that the post you made will make them more aware.