A new warning from the US Federal Trade Commission cites an increasing number of crypto scams targeting ‘unfaithful’ men. According to the FTC, scammers have been tracking down unfaithful men and demanding payments in the form of Bitcoin in exchange for not revealing the target’s alleged affair to their spouse and family. The letters being sent give detailed explanations on how to use Bitcoin to make the payment. An excerpt from one such letter reads:
“I know about the secret you are keeping from your wife and everyone else. You can ignore this letter, or pay me a $8600 confidentiality fee in Bitcoin.”
The FTC calls these incidents “criminal extortion attempts” and encourages anyone who has encountered a message like this to contact the local police and FBI.
Suggested Reading : Learn more about Bitcoin in our beginner’s guide.
Bitcoin Blackmail Scam Targets Porn Viewers
The intimidation tactics used in these ‘unfaithful men’ scams bear resemblance to a porn-viewer extortion scam carried out last month. News first broke in July that a number of porn viewers had been contacted by scammers demanding to be paid $1,900 in Bitcoin in exchange for not releasing footage of the targeted victims watching pornography.
The threatening messages made claims that the hacker had used a remote control desktop to a key logger, which provided access to victim’s screens and web cameras. The footage was being threatened to be put out to everyone on a victim’s contacts list and social media.
Here’s a new form of cryptoblackmail. A friend received this out of the blue. Presumably, it’s getting sent to everyone on the haveibeenpwnd list.
Be careful out there, never pay, never negotiate. pic.twitter.com/VFl5s1duCe
— Emin Gün Sirer (@el33th4xor) July 11, 2018
Cornell University’s computer science professor Emin Gün Sirer was one of the first to break the story and concluded that targeted victims should neither pay nor engage in negotiations with the scammers.
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