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FBI Warns of Email Death Threats Demanding Bitcoin (abc7.com)
An anonymous reader writes:
"I will be short. I've got an order to kill you," the note said, demanding $2,800 in U.S. dollars or Bitcoin. "I switched from being upset about it to, 'I need to get the word out'," one of its targets told a local newscaster. They filed a report through the FBI's web site.
"If only 1% of people send money -- there's no overhead for them; that's money in the bank," one FBI agent tells the news team. A quick Google search finds recent reports of two nearly identical threats using the same text.
"I have been thinking for a long time whether it is worth sending this notice, and decided that you still have the right to know... I've got an order to kill you, because some of your activity causes trouble to several people... I decided to break some rules, as this will be my final order... As soon as I receive the funds, I will forward you the name of the man [this] order came from, and all other information I have."
"If only 1% of people send money -- there's no overhead for them; that's money in the bank," one FBI agent tells the news team. A quick Google search finds recent reports of two nearly identical threats using the same text.
"I have been thinking for a long time whether it is worth sending this notice, and decided that you still have the right to know... I've got an order to kill you, because some of your activity causes trouble to several people... I decided to break some rules, as this will be my final order... As soon as I receive the funds, I will forward you the name of the man [this] order came from, and all other information I have."
I think investing in the currency of extortionists and criminals is a prudent move.
I'll take one bitcoin for $20,000 please, and please store my investment on a web server controlled by the Yakuza.
About death threats. The head of the FFC skipped the CES event because of threats. Slashdot whined that he did not attend because he could not defend his anti net neutrality standing.
"The scam e-mail, which first appeared in December 2006, purports to be a hired assassin, but is in reality a mass spamming looking to grab your personal information. Replying to the e-mails just sends a signal to senders that they’ve reached a live account. It also escalates the intimidation, the FBI said in a report last year."
https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/stories/2007/january/threatscam_111507
So that's why there are so many car accidents in Russia?
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
Add ID theft and some other crimes as well to that.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
No, it's why Tom Clancy is a millionaire.
Man if they're only asking for $2800, they're definitely targeting the wrong 1%.
In my world, "justice" includes things like a trial in which the prosecution must prove charges beyond a reasonable doubt, conviction, and sentencing in a court of law.
Not too sure about yours.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
People watch too many movies. Hired killers aren't Leon the Professional. They're Joe-Bob the alcoholic that your wife met at the bar and slipped $500 to whack you with a crowbar. That's why they get caught all the time, in the rare case that it's not just a sting to catch people trying to hire a contract killer.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
I'd like to think that the guy hired to kill me would need a lot more than $2800 to double-cross the guy that hired him to kill me. How little did I piss someone off for it to only be worth $2800 to call off the killing?
Bring back lynching. It would do a tremendous about of good for society.
Yes, it's much more fun to string up those uppity Negroes or even set them on fire than be bothered with the niceties of a trial.
(And do not even try to tell this good ol' Southern boy that lynching means anything else other than "those people aren't real people like us, so we can kill them whenever we feel like it".)
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
In my world, "justice" includes things like a trial in which the prosecution must prove charges beyond a reasonable doubt, conviction, and sentencing in a court of law.
God knows, I'm with you fully on the need for a fair trial for someone who is accused.
That being said, justice and the law are two related, but separate things. They're like morality and ethics: one is an innate sense of what is right, and the other is an attempt by humans to codify it into a set of rules and procedures.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
;P
It ought to be legal to lynch criminals who create scams like this. Bring back lynching. It would do a tremendous about of good for society.
I don't recall that lynching was ever legal. Certainly it was never just.
Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it. What if a mob decided that you were guilty of something, and they were not prepared to wait for a trial to determine your fate?
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
Even those accused of treason are entitled to a fair trial.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
The FBI should pay the $2,800 in Bitcoin, then deanonymize the transaction to find out who received the money. Once they know who received the money, execute the person who made the threat. Chances are that they're not in the United States, but there are more than enough American operatives around the world to make it happen. It would do society a favor to eliminate those who use criminal activity to mooch off of others and possibly terrify them in the process. In this case, it would be justice to execute the criminal.
That's why they're demanding Bitcoin.
The trouble with a traditional extortion scheme is the money has to go somewhere, you either need to hand it off in person (big risk!) or arrange some kind of wire transfer (you can probably make this close to untraceable, but it's tough).
But with Bitcoin all they know is the address of the wallet (they know that if they pay or not), and unless the owner of the wallet does something dumb to reveal their identity there's no way to know who actually owns the wallet.
This is one of my big worries about cryptocurrencies, the extra level of anonymity enables a lot of extra corruption and criminality.
I stole this Sig
Honestly, the letter would sound a whole lot more convincing if there were a few more zeroes in the figure... at least 2 more, and more likely 3.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
A dead one...or so they would have you believe. Rumor has it he's taken over Patton Oswalt's identity. It's obvious from the recent photos.
the one that purports to come from l33t haxorz in .ru or .ro, claiming to have downloaded malware to your computer when you visited a porn site, harvesting your address book and social media contacts, and turning on your webcam and microphone to record you masturbating. "Pay us bitcoin or we'll send the footage to everyone in your contact lists. Your police can't do anything as we're not in your country."
The spelling from the threat above is just a guess, my interpretation of what was actually received. The real message is atrocious, I've seen 419 scams with better spelling.
I should create a social media "presence" one day - it could be fun, poisoning that well.
They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
First they lynched the nazis, and I said nothing because I was among the slightly educated by comparison.
(And do not even try to tell this good ol' Southern boy that lynching means anything else other than "those people aren't real people like us, so we can kill them whenever we feel like it".)
Did anyone claim that these extortionists are black?
So death
Please send $2800 in DogeCoin to stop
Wow
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Bitcoin stealing has reached a whole new level. sad
websites used also get requests like
i_will_killl_you_today
back then and recorded - so the nsa and five eyes know as they record traffic in Room 641A
This is Nigeria's way of getting back at us for passing the Shithole Nations Act. But without it, we would still be in a government shutdown.
Banning Bitcoin will work about as well as banning gold did (remember?). Better to let BTC run away until some exchange gets hacked for $10 billion right in the middle of one of those periodic price plunges, setting off a cascade of panic selling. That's the only way to educate people.
Bring back lynching. It would do a tremendous about of good for society.
Yes, it's much more fun to string up those uppity Negroes or even set them on fire than be bothered with the niceties of a trial.
You forgot dragging them behind pick-m-up trucks.
In a country where white people are rapidly becoming a major minority, it isn't wise to encourage lynching. But then, we have some pretty good proof we aren't all that wise.
Just to be certain, I'm agreeing with you.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
they've got no overhead so they're really cutting into the cost of hiring an assassin. Sure I can call a hit out on somebody for a fiver, but your getting an untrained amateur instead of a licensed & trained murderer. The other day a 'ninja' showed up to kill me wearing black pajamas and what looked like a plastic sword. I gave him one star.
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The only measured and resonable response is "Bring it on Bitch!!"
I rarely read my email. And I don't believe in BitCoin. I wonder if they'd accept milk and cookies or my firstborn?
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.